By Ferree Hardy, Plain Values
“Oh, I don’t mean to be talking over and over about me,” worried the widow sitting next to me. “I don’t know why I find myself telling you all this.”
I assured her she was fine. “It’s what I do. I let people talk to me. I loved hearing your story.”
“I don’t want to bore anyone or seem prideful. And sometimes when I mention my husband, I see the alarm on their faces,” she continued. “But we made so many memories together, and I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
“Yes, I know. Tell me more…”
Telling the story is something most grieving people do, whether they intend to or not. It just comes out. I smile now, a little embarrassed, when I remember how one of Bruce’s friends called me a month after the funeral. After he asked the innocent question—“So, how are you?”—he got a 45-minute earful! I’m not a talker, but I needed to talk that day.