This episode provides vital updates for the widowhood community as we progress through 2026. Dr. Tina shares details about the Children of Widowhood Secret Santa program and the upcoming Walk for Love initiative designed to foster connection. Listeners will hear about the exclusive Real Widowhood Weekend #NextYou retreat taking place in Virginia Beach this December. We discuss the success of the Hope Grows Here 2026 event and how it supports our new educational scholarship fund. Dr. Tina also outlines the upcoming annual butterfly release ceremony and the men’s grief support group led by James Price. Tune in to learn how you can participate, donate, or find the support you need today.

I am sharing my experience of loving the same man for 32 years, a mother to two adult children, a retired military officer, a breast cancer survivor, and my connections with others. 

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Navigating Widowhood: Updates And The 2026 Retreat

Introduction to Widowhood Updates

One of the things I hear often in this widowhood community is, who am I now that my spouse has died? What should I do next? Have I been grieving so long that I’m stuck and I can’t get out of this? Those questions are going to be answered at a retreat that we are hosting. December 3rd through the 6th here at Virginia Beach, Virginia. Let’s get into this episode so I can share those details with you.

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Children of Widowhood Secret Santa

Widowhood, I have a lot to catch you up on. This is a conversation between the two of us. The first thing that I want to do, and mostly part of this conversation, is give you an update of all the things that’s happening in widowhood. First of all, I want to let that our Children of Widowhood Secret Santa program. We took our last application on June 30th. In 2026, we received 42 applications. That’s doubled in the first year than we did Children of Widowhood Secret Santa. If you’re saying, “What is it anyway?” Let me give you some details.

Children of Widowhood Secret Santa is an opportunity for the nonprofit Widowhood Real Talk with Tina to help children who have lost one or both of their parents receive gifts for the Christmas holiday. You may have been reading this show, but let me roll it back and remind you. This show is part of the nonprofit 501(c)(3 Widowhood Real Talk with Tina, registered here in the State of Virginia. This show is often the gateway where people find out about the nonprofit and get involved.

Children of Widowhood Secret Santa is managed by two widows, Lisa and Tiffany. They manage the program. I do a little bit to help them out, but they are doing the heavy lifting. The program allows us to work with parents or guardians of children who have lost one or both of their parents. Lisa and Tiffany work with these people to create an anonymous Amazon wish list where each child gets to select one to five gifts. Those gifts are under $50 or less. When I say anonymous, those Amazon wish lists will only show the city and the state for the recipient.

On our website, starting October 1st, all those items will be listed and we’re looking for you, other sponsors, churches, places of faith, works, organizations where you work, civic clubs, and all sorts of organizations like funeral homes or hospice to come together to help make sure that these children receive Christmas gifts. Individuals, too. You can sponsor one gift. You may sponsor a child for all five gifts, or maybe a family. Maybe you’re like me, who doesn’t like shopping. The idea of being able to just donate to the program is enough for you.

We have that option available also. The application process for Children of Widowhood Secret Santa closed on June 30th, and starting on October 1st, the list of all the gifts will be available on our website, but on August 1st, we will reach out and let all the applicants that were approved know that they are in the program. Lisa and Tiffany will start working with them.

Walk For Love Details

I am excited. Of those 42 applications, I don’t particularly know how many children are in total, but I’m sure it will be more than what we did for 2026. Also, I want you to know that Walk for Love is coming up soon. In fact, it is August 2nd through the 8th of 2026. You may be saying, “What is Walk for Love?” It is an opportunity for you to get involved with the widowhood community and what that looks like is, we’re asking people from August 2nd to August 8th to walk one mile a day.

Only one mile. You may walk it outside. You may walk it inside. You may have a medical device. I have my right knee replaced, so I’m probably going to be using my walker to scoot down the road and accomplish my one mile a day. Depending on your situation, but before you do it, please check with your health provider to make sure that you’re in a good place to go for a walk every day. We specifically chose one mile a day because maybe you’ve been thinking about returning to exercise.

One of the things that we know that can happen when we are dealing with grief. We don’t take care of ourselves as much as we want to. We don’t exercise. We’re sad. We’re sitting back and we’re disassociated from a lot of things around us. Being able to walk one mile a day can often get us back outside, getting into the sun, connecting with nature, and being able to help us to feel like we’re alive again. On August 2nd through the 8th, we ask you to walk one mile a day. After walking your one mile on your favorite social media platform, we want you to post #WFL2026 and your loved one’s first name. That allows you to say their name.

How often are we wanting to say their name out loud and someone not making weird? How amazing is it to be able to go look on your favorite social media platform and see other people that have posted #WFL2026 and their loved one’s name? We are in this community together. This is a very simple, encouraging, and inspiring way to be part of a community. Encourage yourself and celebrate the person that you love.

Next You Experience Retreat

The next thing that I want to tell you about this going on in the widowhood community is our retreat. The real widowhood weekend #NextYou experience. I have partnered with Maya Dionne, or Maya Tyler depending on what name she buys, but she is the bounce back widow. Maya became a widow at the age of 27 and she had two very small young men. Her sons, her children, and her widowhood experience started then. Over the years, Maya has been instrumental in showing other widows how to recover, how to bounce back, and most importantly, being able to answer the important question of, what is the next you?

Often in this widowhood community, we go, “Who am I now that my spouse is no longer here?” Another question in which I’ve been working on assisting widows and widowers with is, “What happens now when the things that I did to survive now make me feel like I’m stuck in my grief?” If you’re considering, “What do I do to recover to bounce back? Who am I now? What is my next me experience? Have I been on this journey maybe too long that I feel stuck and I’m not feeling like my grief is moving forward?” Those questions and more is exactly the reason why Maya and I are hosting this retreat.

The dates of the retreat are December 3rd through the 6th, 2026, here in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I know those are some pretty heavy topics. What are we going to do to offset that? We have a mansion. We have a three-story mansion with an indoor swimming pool. The chef provides all of the meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner and yes, ladies. Sorry, man. This is for the widows only, massages on deck. Another special treat that you’ll receive, the companion journal to the Five Widows Club.

That journal is going to be an integral part of our retreat. How do you participate? Submit your interest form so we can get together with you. Two other things you want to know. On July 21st, we are having our interest meeting for the retreat. I know it’s like, “How much does this cost?” Let me just let you know upfront. The cost is $1,950. That covers your lodging. It is four days and three nights. It covers every meal, every activity, and the rooftop experience.

The home that we are renting is literally right across the street from Virginia Beach. Every activity, every meal, every snack, everything that we are doing, every journal entry, every conversation, every part of determining what is next to you. Those tools that you will take from this retreat and move forward in your life are all covered under that $1,950. Also, let me tell you, if you catch a train, catch a bus, or you fly to the Norfolk area, someone from our organization will be picking you up and bringing you right to the retreat location.

You are responsible for covering your expenses to get you here to Virginia Beach. If you’re flying, Norfolk, Virginia, is the airport of choice. There is also a train station. There are people catching the train into Norfolk, but those are the things that I want you to be aware of. Another question you may be asking, “How many people are available to attend the retreat?” We have intentionally limited this retreat to ten individuals. You say, “Why?” After the number of ten, Maya and I feel like we won’t be able to focus on each person.

You know how you’re in a retreat and somebody’s like me and they’re super chatty. There may be somebody that’s more of the observant type and may not always be the person speaking. We want to be able to give our full attention to the quietest person of our group and also to the most chattiest person and let everyone know that they are special. They are seen and this retreat is specifically for them.

The other question you may be asking is, “What if I don’t know anybody?” Believe me, most of the people have not met each other before this retreat. Maya and I are making sure that we have connection calls via Zoom a month or two ahead of time so you can know the people that you’re connecting with. By the time you get to the retreat, this person is like your new community. The person that you’re waiting to connect with and be able to know that you’re not alone. Be able to not just see them before the retreat and not just see them doing the retreat.

We have found from having this annual retreat, these are the people that now become part of your new community. If this has sparked your interest, you can email me at WRTWTEvents@gmail.com because we only have five seats left. This retreat starts December 3rd, and five seats are already gone. There’s only a total of ten. You don’t want to miss this and you don’t want to delay. Did I talk about massages? Did I talk about a chef? Yes, I did. I talked about your investment of $1,950. The other thing that we have going on, we have two slots that we are trying to sponsor for widows who are unable to attend. This is a widow’s only retreat.

We have five slots that are already secure. Of the remaining five slots, we are trying to do a sponsorship because even though this is an amazing opportunity, we know that every widow does not have the funds to be able to invest in herself the ways that she wants to. You may be reading this and say, “I want to go to this retreat but it doesn’t line up with my schedule.” Maybe there’s something that you have already planned, but you want to be able to help that widow that would not be able to go without your support. If you use the links, you will be able to donate. We have widow A and widow B.

They’re sharing their story, and it gives you an opportunity to pick them. We are not showing their picture because we want that when these widows show up at the retreat, that they are anonymous of who has been supported and be able to select someone based on the story that you resonate with. Whether it’s $5 or $50 or $100, every amount that you’re able to donate is a donation to Widowhood Real Talk with Tina and you will receive a donation slip from the 501(c)(3). That money will help us to help another widow to find her experience and to be able to invest in herself.

Hope Grows Here Success and Swag

The next thing that I want to bring you up to speed is Hope Grows Here 2026. It was amazing. It was a year worth of planning. I must say that is the biggest thing I planned for like forever, but it was worth every bit of it. Hope Grows Here 2026 was a success in every form of fashion. We were able to raise enough money to start our educational scholarship fund. What does that look like? One of the things that I know for certain, we are not that great about talking about grief. Let alone talk about the financial impact of grief.

When a parent or a spouse passes, it impacts the family economically. The remaining parent may need to return to work to obtain a little livable wage or maybe that the education of their children has been impacted by the death of a parent. Our educational fund will allow us to be able to provide two $500 scholarships starting in 2027. The funds raised from Hope Grows Here 2026 has helped us establish the educational fund, where we’ll be able to provide two $500 scholarships a year to children.

We’re still working out the details of board members for a scholarship fund, the education requirements and all those other things. Please be on the lookout for details coming soon. We are excited to be able to bring that to widowhood. You may think, “I want to be able to be there.” I know. You can check out the pictures for the photos from Hope Growth Here 2026. A lot of you have been sharing and posting. You even donated to the experience to be able to help us to do this.

I want to tell you thank you. Not only do I want to tell you thank you but I want to give you an opportunity to contain some swag from the event. I want you to email me at WRTWTEvents@gmail.com. I want you to email in the subject line Hope Grows Here, and you will be able to receive a tumbler for free and some information on it. We will send this to you for free. We’ll get all the names in, I’ll do a drawing, and then send out the mug to the winner.

Now the event was a 60-themed party and the other thing is that you can email the sunflower to WRTWTEvents@gmail.com and you’ll get this pin and a little swag necklace. Also, something else for your keychain. These are the gifts that we want to be able to give you. Even though you were not able to be there in person, you get some virtual swag from showing up. It was a costume party. It was a ‘60s event. There were widows that came as far as Washington State. She shared a reflection poem that was amazing. You can go see the poem that she read.

It was also my first official book signing for the Five Widows Club. It was also the celebration of my 60th birthday and I retired from my full-time job. It was a lot. Many people donated. There were silent auctions, dancing, and photos. I want you to know even if you were not able to be there in person, you were there in spirit because this community exists because of you. Please email me at WRTWTEvents@gmail.com. Either email me Hope Grows Here or Sunflower, and then we’ll take all the names, and we’ll pull out and find out who’s the winner. I will contact you to be able to send out your gift. Is that a deal? Make sure you email me.

Butterfly Release Ceremony

Two other things that I want to be sure to share with you. One, did you know that we host an annual butterfly release ceremony? Did you? In 2026, our annual butterfly release ceremony is September 12th at 3:00 PM at 55 East Little Creek Road. That cost is only $10, and that barely even covers the cost of the butterflies that we need to order. Widowhood Real Talk with Tina is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and we need to be able to recoup the things that we expect out whenever possible.

If you’re interested in attending the butterfly release ceremony, register now because that helps us to understand how many butterflies that we need to order. It’s a ceremony each person receives a butterfly individually, and they get to release that. It is such an amazing way to honor our loved ones. I invite you to join us September 12th, 3:00 PM Eastern Time. The prices are only $10.

Men’s Grief Support Group

The Last thing that I want to bring you up to date with in widowhood is we host a men’s-only grief support group. I know you’re thinking the guys are like, “We didn’t get a retreat.” It’s okay. You don’t want to be with all those women, but what we do want for you is to get together monthly to give you a safe space to be able to share and that grief support group is hosted by Mr. James Price, who was a widower, a grief support advocate and a gentleman that is passionate about showing up for other men and giving them a safe space to navigate their grief. It is hosted on the second Thursday of every month.

Maybe you feel like you don’t need it but maybe you know a man that does need a safe space to be able to manage his grief, share and connect with other men and know that he is not alone. Those are the things that I wanted to share with you because time is of the essence. The interest meeting is July 21st, so you want to register for it.

You may want to be saving up some money so you can help sponsor a child for Children of Widowhood Secret Santa or maybe put money towards a widow to attend the retreat or maybe you want to attend the retreat yourself. With the five slots that are secured, the two sponsorships, there’s only three slots left and you want to lock yours down now. If you have any questions about what’s going on in widowhood. Email me at WidowhoodRealTalkWithTina@gmail.com. Thank you for tuning in and I look forward for the next episode.

Important Links

• Children of Widowhood Secret Santa
• Maya Dionne
• James Price
• Sponsor for Children of Widowhood Secret Santa
• Sponsor a Widow to attend Real Widowhood Weekend #NextYou Experience
• Photos from Hope Grows Here 2026
• Interest form for Real Widowhood Weekend #NextYou Experience
• WRTWTEvents@gmail.com
• WidowhoodRealTalk@gmail.com
• WidowhoodRealTalkWithTina@gmail.com