In the spring of 2018 my book Dear Me: The Widow Letters was published. It is an anthology of letters written by widows to their newly-widowed selves. I asked them – “If you could send a letter back in time to your newly-widowed self – that heartbroken and overwhelmed woman – what would you say?” Here is the letter that I wrote.
Because the book was so well received by widows and by people who wanted to get a better understanding of what a widow goes through, I decided to publish another anthology – Dear Me: The Mother Letters – in 2021. This time it was mothers who had experienced the death of a child who wrote letters they wished they could send back in time to their newly-bereaved selves.
Now I want to publish another book along similar lines – Dear Me: The Widower Letters. I think men have some different grief experiences than women, and I hope this book will help people understand the unique journey of widowers.
I am looking for letters from men who have experienced the death of their spouse or life partner. I want to know “If you could send a letter back in time to your newly-widowed self, what would you say?” Would they be words of comfort? Advice? Hope? Encouragement? Warning? All of the above and more?
If you are a widower whose loss was at least one year ago, I hope you will consider being a part of this project. The deadline isn’t until the end of 2022, so if you haven’t reached the one year mark yet, please wait to write your letter. It’s better if you have experienced every day of the year at least once since your loss.
If your letter is accepted for this anthology, you will receive $50 CDN and a copy of the book. I do not want to limit how much you write, but I am hoping that the letters will be at least 500 words. You can use your full name, your first name and last initial, or remain anonymous if you prefer. If your letter is accepted, I would like to include a picture of your spouse/life partner and a few sentences about when and how he or she died (in general terms – illness, accident, etc.), how old you were when they died, and how many years it has been since they died.
If you are interested in contributing a letter to this anthology and/or if you have any questions, please contact me at dearme(at)sasktel.net I would like to have all the letters by December 31, 2022 and hope to publish the book in the spring of 2023.
And if you know of any other men who might be interested in participating, please pass the information along to them. Thank you.
