Dr. Tina Fornwald welcomes author, minister, and prophetess Patricia J. Williams to explore faith after loss and navigating the deepest seasons of grief. Walking through devastating bereavement requires immense spiritual strength, community, and trusting that God meets us in our pain. Together, they discuss Patricia’s book, How to Flourish in Spiritual Seasons of Your Life, and how widows can discover renewed hope, healing, and purpose. Patricia’s ministry focuses on helping people experience spiritual freedom and breakthrough through God’s Word. Whether you’re newly widowed, supporting a grieving loved one, or searching for encouragement, this powerful conversation provides practical guidance and biblical wisdom for taking the next step forward. 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.  Anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts should reach out to a suicide hotline or local emergency number in their country: Psychology Today Suicide Hotlines and Prevention Resources Around the World. — Watch the episode here   Listen to the podcast here   Can Grief Become Your Friend? Finding Hope After Loss With Patricia J. Williams Redefining Widowhood And Community Support Our guest is Patricia J. Williams, a minister of the gospel, psalmist, and motivational speaker. She writes to inspire, encourage, and motivate. Let us get into this conversation now. Patricia is going to share with us from her book, How to Flourish in Spiritual Seasons of Your Life.     Patricia, welcome to The Widowhood. Thank you for having me on. When you hear, Welcome to the Widowhood, what is the first thing that comes to mind for you? A deceased spouse. The one who has lost a spouse and they are trying to get more encouragement any way they can. Just forming a group with, per se, other people that are widows as well. You really do not have to be a widow, but just trying to find someone else that will share the same thing. You went through, or that you all happened to go through? I like that you made the point of not having to be a widow. I’m from Chicago, so hood means family to me. Widowhood is that community. Oftentimes, what the widow or widower is missing are the people that were in their community before their spouse died. They need them now more than ever to be entrenched in their life. That’s a worthy conversation. It’s not that you have your spouse’s past, but if this is your family member, your friend, someone that you care about, they are suffering, and they’re needing that community to embrace them Even not a person per se, it could be like a loss of a marriage, a job. Something you were married to, because people are married to their job, their careers. Something can just come in, and just, everything just lost. You just wipe it out. It goes in many forms. That would be the broader scope of grief itself. The widowhood itself would be the direct loss of your spouse. You’re correct that when you think of grief on a broader spectrum, it’s dealing with your own body suffering, having to relocate unexpectedly, problems with your children, loss. The thing that I have seen, and tell me about your experience, people may have some of those lower losses that they may say, “My pet is important,” and then you may have lost the job, your health. The passing of a loved one has a different implication than that of some of these other things because we feel like those are fixable. Those are things that we can adjust, but your child passes, your mom passes, a close cousin or neighbor. Those are not fixable. Learning To Adjust To Life Without Physical Presence They are not fixable because we are learning how to live without them being here. Even though they have passed on, we are trying to adjust how to live without the physical being. Even though we have the memories and everything we used to do with them, we love them unto death. Now we are trying to fix our hearts to say, “They are not here no more.” How do we adjust when we see every little thing, say, like you are in Walmart and you just passed by something they like to eat, and then bam. Here comes the memory again. How do we adjust to that? That’s what we’re going through day by day. How to live without it, without them. I would also add that we love them currently. Oftentimes people go, “loved one,” ED, as if it’s a past tense. Some of the conflict or trauma. We love them currently. The love does not stop because they stop breathing.     It’s just a continuation. It’s just how do we adjust to love them without seeing their physical being? That’s why we have to learn how to get past that stage. As you said, it would never stop. You say we, so that leads me to believe you have a personal experience with grief or someone no longer being here. Would you mind sharing about that? Moving Beyond Titles To Acknowledge Personal Pain I had gone through a season where I lost my mother, my sister, actually two siblings, two first cousins within a three-year span, and my dad too. Me being a minister of the gospel, we tend to always encourage someone else, and we give them like they are in a better place or something like that. I had to learn how to, per se, take off a title and be like, “God, how do I hear?” We have a tight-knit family. I had to learn how to adjust to them leaving me, just going on because I didn’t know how to handle grief because I was in a place where grief wanted to succumb to me. Just wanted me to be in the house, not talk