An African Widow S Journey

This book was inspired by real-life events experienced by one young widow from Southern Africa, who at the age of thirty lost her husband. She felt as though she had been abandoned by the wayside holding three young children. She had no tangible support from the family she was married into. As she traversed through this lonesome, slippery journey, she encountered a myriad of storms that forced her to totally surrender everything, including herself and her children, to the Lord. Through this simple act of giving up and submitting all her circumstances to the Lord, she was granted wisdomwisdom with which to handle the grim challenges and storms that confronted her. From the very onset she soon learnt that the relentless hate and hurtful situations that she faced were to be responded to with heartfelt forgiveness, love, and humility. The Lord also provided this widow with a measure of faith much bigger than the size of a mustard seed. She did not just see mountains being moved; storms were conquered and oceans were opened for her and her children to go through. She and her sons were raised from the bottom of the lowest dump heap and raised to levels that she could have hardly even ever dreamt or imagined possible. An African Widows Journey drives home the message, Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Ps. 30:5).

"This book highlights the plight of women who are widows in the African cultures. It is a memoir reflecting on personal experiences of the author. The book exposes ill cultural practices, myths, traditions, beliefs and societal expectations towards women who are widows. The author highlights some of the harmful, cultural practices; physical and psychological trauma, and the disregard for widows' legal and marital rights. It exposes isolation and exclusion of widows from decision making, property grabbing, arranged marriages and gross human rights violations of women who are widows. Furthermore, the book highlights the role of women in gross violation and abuse of other women who are widows in the name of culture and religion. This is a story about a woman who survived the worst experiences as a widow and managed to rebuild her life, succeeded in her career and became a powerful force in society to empower and support other women."--

Have you recently lost your husband? Are there days when you feel so terribly alone—and that no one else could possibly understand? Author Gayle Roper understands. As a recent widow herself, Gayle writes: So who am I now that there's only one place at the table...one pillow with a head dent, one damp towel after a shower. There's only one toothbrush in the holder. The seat is never left up anymore. I can still write Mrs. in front of my name, but I'm no longer in a marriage relationship. You need two people for a marriage, and there's only me. Is there only you? Then join Gayle as she draws on her emotions during the loss of her beloved husband, Chuck, and offers you a compassionate devotional to encourage you through your darkest days. Gayle knows a widow's pain is deep. But she also knows God's love is deeper still. And it's in His love you'll find your deepest comfort.

A World of Widows provides a global overview of the status for widowhood. Neglected by social policy researches, international human rights activists and the women's movement, the status of the world's widows - legal, social, cultural, and economic - is an urgent issue given the extent and the severity of the discrimination against them. Margaret Own explores the process of becoming a widow; poverty and social security in the context of widowhood; differing laws and customs regarding widow's inheritance; the situation of widows who remarry and issues of sexuality and health. She also looks at the needs of specific groups of widows - refugees, older widows, child widows - and widowhood in the context of AIDS. Throughout, she shows the prevalence of discrimination against widows in inheritance rights, land ownership, custody of children, security of home and shelter, nutrition and health. The book concludes with a summary of widowhood as a human rights issues and an overview of widows themselves organising for change.

How do older women come to terms with widowhood? Are they vulnerable or courageous, predictable or creative in dealing with this life challenge? Most books about widows usually focus on younger women; this book interweaves the voices of older widows their experiences and insights to show how they have come to terms with widowhood and have recreated their lives in new, unsuspected ways. The widows speak about how they relate to their children, their friends, to men. With powerful emotions they describe their husbands’ final illnesses and deaths, and the challenging early days of widowhood. Disputing stereotypes about older women and widows, The Widowed Self allows the reader to visualize the impact of losing one’s life partner and offers a new way of thinking about widowhood. This new book by Deborah Kestin van den Hoonaard fills a void in previous work on widowhood. Rather than seeing these women as unfortunate, passive victims of life, the reader will come to appreciate the strength and creativity with which these women face one of life’s greatest challenges, a challenge that affects more than half of all women over the age of sixty-five. Widows and their families, scholars, social workers and other professionals who work with older adults will all be interested in reading The Widowed Self: The Older Woman’s Journey through Widowhood.

Publisher description

With her signature warmth, hilarity, and tendency to overshare, Leslie Gray Streeter gives us real talk about love, loss, grief, and healing in your own way that "will make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page" (James Patterson). Leslie Gray Streeter is not cut out for widowhood. She's not ready for hushed rooms and pitying looks. She is not ready to stand graveside, dabbing her eyes in a classy black hat. If she had her way she'd wear her favorite curve-hugging leopard print dress to Scott's funeral; he loved her in that dress! But, here she is, having lost her soulmate to a sudden heart attack, totally unsure of how to navigate her new widow lifestyle. ("New widow lifestyle." Sounds like something you'd find products for on daytime TV, like comfy track suits and compression socks. Wait, is a widow even allowed to make jokes?) Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Widow redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-drinking, to being a grown-ass woman crying for your mommy, to breaking up and making up with God, to facing the fact that life goes on even after the death of the person you were supposed to live it with. While she stumbles toward an uncertain future as a single mother raising a baby with her own widowed mother (plot twist!), Leslie looks back on her love story with Scott, recounting their journey through racism, religious differences, and persistent confusion about what kugel is. Will she find the strength to finish the most important thing that she and Scott started? Tender, true, and endearingly hilarious, Black Widow is a story about the power of love, and how the only guide book for recovery is the one you write yourself.

From the acclaimed author of Daughters and Brown Girl, Brownstones comes a “work of exceptional wisdom, maturity, and generosity, one in which the palpable humanity of its characters transcends any considerations of race or sex”(Washington Post Book World). Avey Johnson—a black, middle-aged, middle-class widow given to hats, gloves, and pearls—has long since put behind her the Harlem of her childhood. Then on a cruise to the Caribbean with two friends, inspired by a troubling dream, she senses her life beginning to unravel—and in a panic packs her bag in the middle of the night and abandons her friends at the next port of call. The unexpected and beautiful adventure that follows provides Avey with the links to the culture and history she has so long disavowed. “Astonishingly moving.”—Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review