Linda Della-Donna

Linda Della-Donna is founder and director of http://www.griefcase.net. Griefcase is a nonprofit organization. Linda Della Donna supports widows going through the grief process. Della Donna makes her home 50 miles north from where the World Trade Center used to be. Email Linda Della Donna at griefcasenet@gmail.com

Articles:

What a New Widow Should Know to Survive

When you suddenly find yourself without your life partner, you don’t know what to expect. Your world’s been turned upside down. Like the mighty oak caught in a fierce wind, you feel uprooted. Your feet don’t touch the ground. You think you’re crazy. But you’re not. You’re just a new widow. Your husband is dead and your life is forever changed.

Dear Widow: When Mistletoe and Holly Make You Feel All Blue

Oh, by gosh, by golly, whaddayaknow, it’s Happy Holiday time, again! And that red-suited man standing on your street corner’s extolling, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” making, you, dear widow, want to scream, “No! No! No!” instead, because your husband is dead. Just like teeny snowflakes falling from the sky, you’re feeling sad and a tiny bit silly. You don’t understand. Because it’s *hand over mouth* years since you buried that man. Not to worry. Because I’m a widow, too. And I got three tips for you to get you through. Tip #1 – Cry. Go ahead. Give yourself permission. Pick a […]

You Know You’re a Widow When…

By Linda Della Donna — You know you’re a widow when… At the end of a good day, you bust out crying for no particular reason. At the end of a bad day, you burst out laughing for no particular reason. At the end of everyday, you crawl into bed and sleep on His side. You refuse to throw away His toothbrush, His razor, His bar of soap, because you think He’ll need them. The sight of His bathrobe hanging on a hook on the back of the bathroom door reduces you to tears, but you refuse to throw it […]

For the New Widow: Ten Tips To Help Her Survive…After the Funeral

You?re home now. A short while ago you stood over a hole in the earth. You blew a kiss, tossed a rose, sprinkled a shovelful of dirt over a casket, and said goodbye to your husband, your soul mate, the best friend you ever had. As you move about greeting hungry strangers, someone whispers that the woman wandering about with mayonnaise on her chin is your mother?s sister?s next door neighbor?s cousin?s dog?s pet sitter. It is a scene right out of Star Wars, the one in the bar, and you feel trapped

For Widows Only — What I’ve Learned

After my husband died, I trashed my writing — Journals — An accumulation of spiral bound notebooks, one for each month of each year for four years. And a YA novel manuscript I was working on. I blamed my husband’s dying on my writing. I told myself, Self, if you hadn?t spent so much time writing, you might have noticed your husband was sick.

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