Catherine Tidd Faces Grief and Comes Out a Winner
Confessions of a Mediocre Widow: Or, How I Lost My Husband and My Sanity is Catherine Tidd’s memoir detailing her experience losing her husband in a motorcycle accident three weeks after her 31st birthday and just before her 11th wedding anniversary. At the time of his death, she was a stay-at-home mom with three kids under six.
You would think that a book about a young woman who loses her husband and is left to raise three children alone would be completely depressing. Surprisingly, the story is both mesmerizing and inspirational. Tidd faced one of the worst possible situations a woman could go through, but came out a stronger and more resilient person. She struggled, but she got through it with the support of her family and friends.
Tidd’s sense of humor comes through loud and clear as she’s telling her story. One of my favorite parts of the books is when Tidd is describing looking at a photo of her children in front of their father’s headstone and panicking when she realizes that she somehow approved the stone with the wrong birthdate. “You can try all you want to be the perfect widow, but all it takes is one typo on a tombstone to blow you cover,” she writes.
Confessions of a Mediocre Widow is worth a read even if you’ve never lost a spouse. But, if you’re reading the book to help you cope with your own loss or to understand what a friend or family member is going through, Tidd has included a section with practical tips and advice, such as suggesting that widows split the ashes between themselves and their in-laws after cremation to avoid disagreements about what to do with the remains and recommending that supporters ask “How are you feeling?” instead of saying “I know how you feel!” in order to avoid being perceived as trivializing the widow’s loss.
You can see more of her tips at theWiddahood.com.
Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher.
Photo credit: Barnes & Noble
