There is a subculture in our society that is only experienced by women who are suddenly identified by society as a ""widow." Women don't know it is there before they are in it. Society is not aware the way they interact with, speak to, listen to, and consider widows is different from the way they engaged with these women when their husband's were alive. There is also very little understanding of what that kind of loss looks like on a day to day basis or the ways in which society makes it more difficult. It is not that people are thoughtless; it is just that they are thought - less. They don't think about what they say, how they react, what they do or don't do or what they think "should" be happening. This book is a journey in that new world as taken by an independent, self-sufficient, caring, bright woman upon the death of the husband she had loved for almost fifty years. It is a look into a world that is foreign to all of us but one in which all of us traffic often. Take time to discover the Signposts of the Journey both for your future reference and to support you as you support the women in your life who are also on this journey.