Losing a spouse can feel like the end of your world, leaving you navigating a landscape of grief and hopelessness. In this heartfelt conversation, guest Gina Sevey draws a poignant parallel between the slow, deliberate process of baking sourdough bread and the journey of widowhood, emphasizing that grief cannot be rushed. Through her personal story of loss and her mission to support others, Gina explores how to manage overwhelming emotions, the necessity of community, and the transformative power of shifting your thought processes. Listeners will gain actionable insight into how to honor their past while finding the strength to embrace a future where joy and grief can coexist, ultimately learning a new way to stand in their own lives. 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   Life After Loss: Gina Sevey On Widowhood, Grief Support & Healing After Spousal Loss When your spouse died, did you feel like your life was over? Did you feel like you were hopeless? Did you feel like nothing was worth doing anymore? Have you been looking for a way to change that thought process, to be hopeful, to think that there are opportunities for you to have joy? If that is you, this is a conversation you want to be in with Gina. Let’s get into this discussion.       Gina, welcome to the Widowhood. Thank you so much. I’m so glad and honored to be here. When I say, “Welcome to the Widowhood,” and you say you’re honored and glad, the backstory or the ticker tape is what we would read, or would it be something else? I’m sad that I have to be here. There we go. I always say to the ladies in my group, “I wish I were teaching you how to make sourdough bread, but this is where we are at.” The Sourdough Metaphor: Processing Grief What are some similar processes to make sourdough bread as it relates to dealing with, managing, and surviving widowhood? Are there similarities? There are. The thing about sourdough bread, rather than making regular bread, is that with sourdough, there’s a long fermentation. You can’t rush it. Grief is the same thing. It’s something you cannot rush. Timing is so important with sourdough bread. You put that starter in with the flour and water, and then you let that levain rise. That’s a seven-hour process. You’ve then got to make the dough, and there’s even a process within making the dough. It’s not mixing it up and then slapping it in some stuff. There’s a process, and it requires time. It is the same thing for widowhood. There’s a process, and it’s your process. Grief is the same. We all lost our husbands. If you’re a widow, you lost your husband. The process can be different depending on how you look at it. Thank you for diving into that impromptu question. I could see some similarities. Would you share your husband’s name with us? Sure. My husband’s name is Lew. When you heard me ask for his name, what image came to mind or memory? His smile, his presence, and his joy for life. If you knew Lew, you knew Lew. He’s bold and fearless. Whenever I hear his name, I think he made an impression on my life and on so many other people’s lives. Do you remember the first time you met Lew? Yes. Do tell. We were both at a community college. He was in the Military. He was going back to school so that he could become an officer in the Military. I met him because I had a boyfriend at the time, and he introduced Lew to me in the common area. He was so funny and so different. He’s seven years older than me. I was like, “He’s a cutie,” but I was dating somebody. He was dating someone, too. That next semester, I had broken up with that guy, and I wound up seeing Lew again. He had gotten out of jump school. He had short hair. I remember putting my hand on his head, and I was like, “You got your hair cut.” He asked me, with my friend, like, “How about if you, your boyfriend, and I see a movie together?” That’s how it started. I used to live in Chicago. We went down to the city, and it was so much fun. Do you remember the movie? First Blood. Appropriate for a Military guy. Were you into the movie or into Lew? Which one was it? Lew. I do remember thinking as I was in the movie, “Why did I say yes to this?” but it was a good movie. Have you seen it since? No. It was not that great. It wasn’t one of those Sunday afternoons repeat movies. Navigating Love, Faith, And Early Marriage You and Lew go out on this date, and where do we go from there? I was telling my daughter that the night that Lew took me home, because he dropped everyone and me off and walked me to my door. He gave me a butterfly kiss. I remember thinking, “He didn’t kiss me on my lips. He kissed me and gave me a little butterfly kiss.” I was like, “He’s different.” We started dating from there. We dated for a couple of years and then got married. Let’s back it up. At what point did we become exclusive? How did this come about? Was it organic? It was organic. He was fun and funny. My parents weren’t super excited about him because he was older. He had been married before.