Life Insurance Archives - Widowhood Real Talk with Dr. Tina

Securing Life After Death With Pam Baker

Podcast / September 18, 2025

Widowhood Real Talk with Tina | Pam Baker | Life After Death

A lot of things have to be addressed and dealt with after a loved one’s passing, especially on the financial side. How can you handle life after death in the smoothest way possible? I sit down with Pam Baker, who talks about her book “Where’s the Key to the Safe?” She discusses how she handled the finances of her late husband while dealing with the grief of losing her most beloved person in the world. Pam also shares how her widowhood journey inspired her to create Widows Who Wine™, a community centered on supporting and uplifting each other by celebrating their interests and passions. 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 Securing Life After Death With Pam Baker Our guest Pam Baker is going to talk to us about some essential information that she learned after the passing of her husband John. The book that we’re going to cover Where’s the Key to the Safe? She didn’t know where the keys were. This is not like a fictitious title. She did not know where the keys were to the safe when her husband died. Pam found out that there was so much more that she didn’t know. She doesn’t want other people to struggle about things that they don’t know when someone that they love pass. This book and this conversation is not just for widows and widowers. This is for anyone that’s alive and needs to plan for the people that will be here after they leave or maybe you have people in your family that you’re wanting to support and need to understand their points. This is a conversation for you. Also, the idea of her group that she has for women who won, widows who won, you want to hear about this. This is something that you may be able to connect with where you’re adding your location. Let’s get into this conversation now. Pam, welcome to the Widowhood. Thank you so much for having me. “Thank you for having me in the widowhood,” when you feel. I know. That’s weird. Let’s back up. What does that mean? I know we’re jumping but it’s so funny because I’ve talked to you about my group Widows Who Wine™ and it’s a social group. Once a month, I’ll do a welcome. We have a private Facebook group and I’ll do a welcome to everybody like, “Welcome to,” then I’m like, “Wait.” I do that every single time because I want to be warm and inviting but then I’m like, “That’s weird. It’s like welcome to the tribe.” How Widows Who Wine™ Came To Be What is the name of your group? What do you guys do? Since we’re there, let’s talk about. I’ll just back up a little bit. My husband passed away in November of 2021. He had brain cancer and I couldn’t find my way in the widow world and in the grief world because every grief group I tried felt like people stuck there. It didn’t feel like they were trying to figure out how to move through it and with it in a healthy way. To me, it just didn’t resonate. I hired my own grief counselor like a private one-on-one certified grief coach. I still work with her now. She’s more of a life coach now but the grief still hits when it hits. That was in November of 2021 when he passed away. In February of 2023, I kept seeing on our local mom group Facebook pages, women who were widowed. They’d come on there and say, “I just lost my husband or my sister just lost her husband. Where are the resources?” Every time, it was those same resources that didn’t resonate with me and they may with them. It was frustrating me so I decided there needs to be something else. At that point, you realize that when you get back out into life after your person dies, you’re like the third wheel with a couple of your friends from then on. They’re great and it’s fine but it’s just not the same. Your single friends are like talking bad about their exes and how much they suck and all of that. That doesn’t feel right either. The space was awkward, so I decided I’m going to start this group and it’s going to be based on your social network like your social people. You have people to hang out with who have that same shared experience. I always make fun of the head tilt and the, “How are you?” That whole thing that drives me crazy. You just get it because they’re walking the same path. I wanted it to give that social vibe, so I call it Widows Who Wine™. I put it on my Facebook page and said, “Anybody want to come over to my house?” Fourteen women showed up that very first night and I knew of a couple of them. I knew one and then I knew of a few others. I decided I’d keep putting it out there. I’d organize one social event a month and that’s what I did. Everything from ax throwing to wine tasting to pottery. Sometimes we do educational things and home maintenance 101 and financial planning 101, etc. It just has grown and grown and now there’s over 350 women in it in the Atlanta area and all kinds of offshoots like widows who travel, widows who dine, widows who golf, widows who poker, widows who Mahjong. There’s everything. It’s awesome. To plug this for a second because so many people

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All Grief Is The Same And All Grief Is Different: A Double Widow’s Story With Andrea Lott Haney

Podcast / March 6, 2025

Widowhood Real Talk with Tina | Andrea Lott Haney | Double Widow

Grief is a universal experience, yet every journey through loss is unique. In this episode, Andrea Lott Haney shares her extraordinary story of navigating the complexities of double widowhood. Andrea opens up about the profound grief and emotional challenges of losing two spouses, offering a unique perspective on the similarities and differences in grieving multiple losses. She discusses the importance of self-care, community support, and faith in her healing journey, and provides inspiration for others facing adversity. Tune in to hear Andrea’s courageous story and discover how to find hope and meaning in the face of life’s greatest challenges. 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 All Grief Is The Same And All Grief Is Different: A Double Widow’s Story With Andrea Lott Haney Finding Community & Support After Loss: The Widowhood Club Andrea, welcome to the Widowhood. Thanks for having me, Tina. I’m very honored to be here. What do you think when you hear, “Welcome to the Widowhood?” What was the first thing that came to your mind if the ticker tape would have just printed on your forehead? I say a lot whenever I meet somebody newly widowed that it is the worst club to belong to and we have the best members. We support each other like no other club, the Widowhood Club, in both the specific sense of your group and then also the general sense of just being widows and how, once you’ve been through it, you know things that the general public does not know and you have been places the general public has not been. There’s a solidarity there. You nailed that. For people who are reading and just to make them jealous, when you say my group, what does that look like to you? What did that look like to you before you became part of that group? TikTok: A Digital Oasis For Young Widows I met you on TikTok, but I was not on TikTok prior to Brian’s passing. I specifically got on TikTok because other social media platforms were too emotionally loaded for me. Being widowed twice, my first husband, Gary, who passed in 2010, his passing predated my first iPhone. I did not have a huge social media presence in those days. I was on MySpace and I had just gotten on to Facebook for work, but I didn’t have a ton of digital memories and so forth of him. When I got together with Brian, I really wanted to change that. I made it a point to document digitally and on social media all these seemingly unimportant moments of our lives because they were important to me. After he passed, I’m so glad that I did that because I know that those memories are so precious, but in the immediate aftermath, I did not want to see them. It was more than just turning off the memory feature on the platform. It would be like my friend would change her profile picture and it would say, “Brian Haney liked this photo or something.” It would come up non-consensually. These other social media platforms were just so emotionally loaded for me. I went to TikTok because it was a fresh slate for me. That’s where I met you and where I met a lot of the other ladies and men who are part of supporting each other through your organization, Widowhood Real Talk with Tina, and how you use your platform to not only engage with us and to help us when we express our feelings, but also you go live, you include us in your videos. We’ve created this network in the way of a lot of us know each other now. Some of us have even met outside of social media or exchanged phone numbers and talked offline, and we’ve become our own little support group in a way. That is so huge. Thank you for explaining that. I must admit, before I got on TikTok, I thought everybody was gyrating or somebody was dancing, and that’s all I was going to see. There are subcultures for any topic that you’re interested in. If you’re an author, there’s author TikTok. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, there’s stay-at-home TikTok. There’s actress TikTok. The ability to create a network. The thing you mentioned about going live, that ability, if you’re not ready to talk to people and sit on the outside, watch these conversations, and then decide, “I’m going to say something or I’m going to get engaged,” they did this right. I’m not a tech person by any means, but I’ve heard it explained that it’s an interest-based algorithm as opposed to a follower-based algorithm. They’re better at knowing what you want to see. If I’m on grief tok or if I’m on widow tok, it connects me to other people like that. The very first video that I made on TikTok was basically introducing myself as somebody who had been widowed twice at a young age and saying, “I knew nobody in my real life.” Over the years of being widowed, I had met hundreds of young widows at that point and I knew nobody who was double a widow. Now I know people who are my age and double widowed. What does that mean for you in your grief journey to know that and to know them? The Power Of Community In Grief In my grief journey the second time, I have done a lot of throwing my fists in the air and saying, “This is so unfair. How could this possibly be happening to me

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A Deep Legal Talk On Grief With Lawyer Michelle Farley

Podcast / March 28, 2024

Widowhood Real Talk with Tina | Michelle Farley | Legal Talk

Losing a loved one is not just a roller coaster of emotions; it is also an experience full of legalities and paperwork. In this episode, I sit down with lawyer Michelle Farley to have a legal talk about grief, exploring how to get organized for the eventual passing of a partner, a parent, a relative, or even yourself. She explains the importance of preparing a last will, getting into trust, the benefits of life insurance, and making funeral plans with the most beloved people in your life. Michelle also discusses the complexities of having a grief brain, exploring why you should not make major financial decisions a year after the passing of a loved one. Thank you for viewing this post. I am not a licensed therapist or professional life coach. 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: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/suicide/suicide-prevention-hotlines-resources-worldwide. — Watch the episode here Listen to the podcast here A Deep Legal Talk On Grief With Lawyer Michelle Farley In this episode, our guest is a lawyer from Pennsylvania. Her name is Michelle Farley. She is going to cover some essential topics that are very critical in dealing with grief and the loss of a loved one. Let’s get into the conversation. All About Michelle In this episode, our guest is a lawyer from Pennsylvania. Her name is Michelle Farley. I want to be specific in the idea that she has legal information to share with us but she’s also speaking from the perspective of law as it relates to the state of Pennsylvania. This information is going to be helpful because it will give you that cornerstone of information to broaden your reach with your local lawyer and find out where you need to go and what you need to do. This will be a jump-off point for you. Welcome, Michelle Farley. Tina, thank you so much for inviting me. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity. You’re well aware that you and I go way back in time. I’m going to introduce myself and then explain a little bit about our background in terms of how we know each other. My name is Michelle Farley. I’m an attorney, practicing in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. That’s Monroe County, Pennsylvania. This is where Tina lived not too long ago. I have to give the disclaimer that we have not formed an attorney-client relationship between me and the readers. Also, I’m not giving specific legal advice to anyone to your readers but rather this is general information, which I’m hoping that your readers will find helpful. I have been an attorney shockingly for many years. It’s hard for me to believe. Basic summary of my practice, and I won’t go into too much detail, but after college, I attended law school at New York University. My first job was clerking for a Federal Judge in Baltimore. When somebody knew they wanted to be a courtroom lawyer, usually, the best first job is to work for a judge so you can see other lawyers in action and that’s what I did. From there, I joined a huge law firm in Washington, D.C. At that time, there were over 1,000 lawyers in private practice there. Interestingly, during the time that I worked there, there was a young partner there named John Roberts. He’s the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. It was where a lot of the movers and shakers were at that time right in the thick of things in Washington, D.C. I was there for about six years, getting my feet under me, getting some good training, and learning from older lawyers and then I moved to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania after getting married. My husband and I wanted to be in a more rural country area. He identified the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania as a good spot. As Tina knows, my husband was a big hunter and fisherman so he wanted to be in the woods somewhere, and poking them out fit the bill. For a couple of years, I didn’t practice law. I worked as an Environmental Project Manager in a non-legal position but then I did open my office in 1999 in Pennsylvania after passing the bar examination and getting licensed here. I met Tina around 2003 or 2004. Is that right, Tina? It was right around 2000. Catherine was starting kindergarten in the Pocono. We have relocated from Virginia to Pennsylvania. We went to Pennsylvania because our children were young and Mark was from Bloomsburg. It was a good opportunity for the children to be close to his family. Also, Mark was working in New York as an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers electrician. The time has come for Catherine to go to school. This part I thought was very interesting for the area that they allowed the parents to ride the bus route that their children would go on. You would be acclimated to your child’s route. When I got on the bus, we made assessments of everything and I looked at a few ladies in the back and they looked click-ish. They looked to me, some stay-at-home moms, which I was but I was in transition. I looked at Michelle and she was sitting there. She wore a suit but if she had that demeanor, I was like, “She’s my people.” I went and sat next to her and started chatting up a little bit. “You didn’t want to just sit by yourself.” She was sitting there so properly and back straight. Michelle and her family are tall. I’m like, “Yes, tall women.” They look professional. I was like, “I’m right here. This is who I’m sitting next to.” Tina and I chose each other. We

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Understanding Financial Management With Jesus Gonzales

Podcast / November 16, 2023

One of the hardest things to deal with after the passing of a loved one is handling money matters that come with such a loss. Those who are left behind must know the right financial management approaches to avoid putting themselves in even bigger hardships. Exploring everything you need to know about this matter with Tina Fornwald is Financial Coach Jesus Gonzales of PFS Investments. He discusses the importance of having life insurance and an emergency fund, especially for those with family members who are not generating income yet. Jesus also presents some tips on investing your money, navigating the stock market, and dealing with interest rates. Thank you for viewing this post. I am not a licensed therapist or professional life coach. 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: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/suicide/suicide-prevention-hotlines-resources-worldwide. — Watch the episode here Listen to the podcast here Understanding Financial Management With Jesus Gonzales In this episode, our guest is Mr. Jesus Gonzales and he’s going to educate us on the money aspect of life. One thing we have all learned even though someone has passed is the part that we have to handle the remaining loved ones, the widow, the widower, and the children. There are always financial aspects of things that have to take place. For some of us, this will be a conversation because you’re a friend of someone who has passed and you’re leaning in to say, “What should I be aware of when I’m in that position?” Some people may say, “I’m past that,” but there are some things that you may need to put in place so that when your demise happens, your loved ones already have things in place. I am grateful for him being here, being part of this conversation, and being able to share information with us. Welcome. Thank you for having me and for your time. Tell us a little bit about yourself. My name is Jesus Gonzales. I am a Financial Coach for PFS Investments. I help educate people on how money works. I teach people how to earn money, save money, and get out of there and become financially independent. How did you get into this line of work? I worked at the shipyard. I received a friend request through Facebook. One of the people who used to work at the shipyard invited me to her office to show me what she does. Once I saw what she did, I was very interested in learning about finances myself and educating other people about finances. What did you realize you didn’t know beforehand? I realized a whole lot of things. Having some income protection or what we normally know as life insurance is very important. Our parents had taught me how to save money but didn’t tell me the proper ways of saving money. We all understood that saving money in a bank was efficient but I learned that it’s not efficient enough because saving money in a bank is not going to help us grow our money as fast as we need it. Tell us a little bit about that organization, PFS Investments. That organization was founded in 1977 by a man named Art Williams. He found it because when he was a teenager, he was living with his parents. His father had a whole life insurance. When his father passed away, his mom thought that they were going to be taken care of but came to find out that the insurance that he had was not sufficient to take care of them and be able to supply them the lifestyle that they were living with. Ever since then, he got into a crusade to educate people on finances and showed them the proper way of protecting their income and teaching people the real way money works. You mentioned something very interesting there. Life insurance existed and the widow found out that that was not enough money to be able to sustain life. What should someone think about when they’re considering life insurance? Life insurance should be looked at as a way of replacing somebody’s income, being able to pay off the debt that they have, or going to leave to their loved ones. If they buy a house, also being able to pay the mortgage. The final expense is their funeral. Life insurance is more than just the final expense. It is a way to replace somebody’s income and be able to pay off debt so that way that person can be debt-free. How do I find out how much life insurance I need? The way we do that is called DIME, which stands for Debt, Income, Mortgage, and Education. The first question we going to ask is, “If a person is paying for a house, how much money they will need to be able to pay off the house?” We will ask about income replacement. In the case of a marriage, husband, and wife, if the husband passes away, how much money he will need to be able to replace his income? What we do is find out how much money he needs. Let’s say it’s $4,000, $5,000, or $3,000 a month. We find out the age of the youngest child and how much longer that child is going to live before they can become grownups and leave the house. Let’s say it’s $4,000. We multiply the $4,000 by 12 because it’s 12 months in a year. Let’s say it is ten more years before the child becomes an adult. We multiply that by ten and that gives you the amount of income that that person needs to be able to live comfortably to replace that income. How much money that person

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Faith Tested, Faith Restored: The Remarkable Story Of A Widower Through Grief With James Price

Podcast / October 19, 2023

Through grief’s darkest night, faith becomes the dawn that guides us to a new day. In this deeply moving episode, we sit down with James Price, a remarkable widower who opens his heart to share the profound story of his loss, healing, and newfound purpose. Life can be heartbreakingly unpredictable, and James knows this all too well. As he candidly recounts the devastating blow of losing his beloved wife, he takes us through the turbulent waves of grief and the weight of loneliness that followed. But this conversation isn’t just about despair; it’s about resilience, faith, and the extraordinary strength that emerges from adversity. James shares how God’s guiding hand helped him navigate the darkest hours and find hope amid despair. His faith in God’s keeping power became a beacon of light during his darkest days. Tune in to find hope in his words, discover the importance of faith, and learn how sharing your experiences can light the path for others seeking solace. Thank you for viewing this post. I am not a licensed therapist or professional life coach. 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: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/suicide/suicide-prevention-hotlines-resources-worldwide — Watch the episode here Listen to the podcast here Faith Tested, Faith Restored: The Remarkable Story Of A Widower Through Grief With James Price Our guest is Minister James D. Price. He actually lost his wife the same year that Mark died. We connected, saw him on YouTube, and as you know, I am, unfortunately, always looking for men to be able to share their voices in this conversation. We talked for a long time, and that is the type of conversation I want you to have. I want my conversations with my guests to be like two people sitting in their front room talking about a shared experience so they can find encouragement. Let’s get into the conversation now. Our guest is Minister James Price. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I appreciate this. Thank you so much. As with everybody else, I’m not a fan that we are having this conversation. You were in the Widowhood before we had this discussion, but now you are connecting with our community. James, where are you now? I’m here in my home in Inkster, Michigan. It’s nice and hot outside. I got finished watering my grass and now I’m in here talking to you guys. I’m excited to be here. You must be cool because that looks like a whole sweatshirt you have on right there. It is a sweatshirt. I’m a huge sweatshirt fan. This is my rapper, actor/entrepreneur because I am an entrepreneur. Doing what? I have a small marketing business. I advertise online for small local businesses. They pay me a fee every single month for advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I do that for them. They pay me for that and I help bring them customers. How did you get into that? Is that something you’ve done for a long time? I got into it because I was looking at videos on YouTube and saw an ad for these two guys, probably around my age, talking about how anybody can do this. They do it and they make all this money. I said, “Whatever. Everybody says they make all this money.” I continued to skip the ad and look at the video I was trying to get to. One day, I looked at the ad and said, “This might be something.” That’s why I decided to get into it. It cost me a lot of money to get into this program, but I did it and it paid off. I took the time to learn everything that I could learn about business and marketing because I wasn’t into marketing. I didn’t know much about it. I knew what the word meant, but I didn’t know much about actually getting into marketing. That’s what I do. It’s paying off. I’m grateful. What did you do before this? I was a Manager at Walmart. That’s a lot of work. It doesn’t seem like it may be a lot, but for people on the outside looking, not on the inside, we couldn’t understand how people can’t understand how much work we have to do because people will come in. Being a manager, I probably got cussed out at least once a day, sometimes more than that. People weren’t happy with certain things that were going on in the store. We all had these walkie-talkies. They would call me. They call me JP at work, and they would say, “JP, there’s a customer up here. They’re upset. They want to talk to a manager.” I would say, “Where’s your team lead manager? They can take care of it.” They say, “No, they want to talk to someone above the team leads. They want to talk to a coach manager.” I would have to go up front and get cussed out. You expect to go for someone to not be happy with us not returning their item. If you don’t have the receipt, we cannot give you a full refund in cash. We have to put it on a gift card. You can only use the gift card in the store. People will be upset with that. I’m thinking it’s because they needed the money so they’ll be upset with that. It happens at times. We got used to it. It is what it is. That’s retail. How did Minister Price reconcile with Walmart customers? How did that go? The minister came in because what happened is, one day, maybe 6 months after my wife passed and 4 months after my third daughter passed, I was working on some videos

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Winning Financial Solutions: Critical Financial Advice And Guidance For Widows And Widowers With Kelly B Hunter

Podcast / June 15, 2023

When you lose your spouse, you start again from scratch. How can we get back up again financially after the loss? In this episode, Kelly B. Hunter of Winning Financial Solutions shares some critical financial advice and guidance for widows and widowers. We need to get our bearings after losing our partner. As homeowners, we can get bearings through Mortgage Protection Insurance because there are options for paying our mortgage off. She clarifies that the widow’s benefits on their late husband’s social security get nullified if they remarried before 60 years old. Find more insights in this episode as Kelly Hunter financially guides you through your loss. Thank you for viewing this post. I am not a licensed therapist or professional life coach. 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 a suicide hotline or local emergency number in their country. — Watch the episode here Listen to the podcast here Winning Financial Solutions: Critical Financial Advice And Guidance For Widows And Widowers With Kelly B Hunter Our guest is Ms. Kelly B. Hunter. Kelly B. Hunter is a financial freedom strategist, financial literacy author, advocate, and educator, Board/FCRA Certified Personal and Business Credit Professional, Freddie Mac Certified Smart Trainer, and multi-state licensed life insurance, health, and annuity producer. She is the Founder and CEO of Winning Credit Solutions, as well as Kelly B Protects Me. Ms. Hunter is the host and content creator of Winning Credit Solutions, a weekly podcast. The program airs on Redink Live. She serves as a Director of Financial Literacy Program with What About Us, which is a New York-based nonprofit that serves youth transitioning out of New York foster care systems. Ms. Hunter has written financial literacy curriculum for the largest foster care agency in New York City and is writing a curriculum for the SAAS training program. Ms. Hunter also serves as a Treasurer of the Financial Committee Chair in the Monroe County Branch of the NAACP. Kelly is a mother, a grandmother, a cancer conqueror, a widow, and now the CEO of a thriving financial service firm. Kelly works predominantly with single-parent professionals and mompreneurs to help them design a non-judgmental, holistic five-step game plan to take their finances from flawed to freedom. In the sum of her unique life experience, Kelly’s willingness to share her triumphs through suddenlys of life, enabled this dynamic woman to coach her clients through the importance of being prepared, proactive, and protected. Let’s get into this conversation with Kelly B. Hunter. In this episode, my guest is Ms. Kelly B. Hunter. Kelly and I go way back, but I’m going to let her introduce herself and then we’ll jump right into it. As Tina said, I’m Kelly B. Hunter. Tina and I met in a widows’ group. I was there first and then Tina came very shortly thereafter. Before we started the conversation, Tina asked if I was okay with how I became Kelly B. Hunter, the financial freedom strategist. My husband’s passing was the catalyst for me wanting to start my business. The interesting thing was we had decided that my husband was going to retire that December in 2016. That was going to be it for him which took about two years for me to even convince him that it was time for him to retire. He wouldn’t retire with his full pension or whatever. I said, “Okay.” My son is off to college and I’ll have more time and I’ll need something to do. Maurice purchased a business for me and I thought that I was going to be making these personalized children’s books, which were amazingly cute. I was making them for friends and family. Life changed and I decided that was not going to do it for me. Going through grief therapy, counseling, and meeting all of these amazing women who were in the same situation having lost their husbands, but they had been stay-at-home moms, they were home raising their children, taking care of their homes, and doing all this stuff. I came to understand that my financial circumstances were very different than most of the other women that I had encountered. The way that Maurice and I worked, he made the money and I spent the money. It was my responsibility to be a good steward of the money that he made. I was very clear about where we stood financially, even with his passing. I also came to understand that that was not the circumstance for many of the other women that became widows or suddenly became widows. They didn’t know anything about their finances. They didn’t have any credit in their name. They may not have had life insurance or they thought that the insurance policy of their husband’s job was enough and it wasn’t. That would’ve been an accidental death and dismemberment policy that didn’t pay out under the circumstances upon which he passed. They were losing their homes. Their homes were being foreclosed on. There was a lot going on. After being in therapy for a few years, I decided that was the work that I needed to do. That would allow me to serve in a way that would impact the greatest number of people that I could possibly and affect more change. Children’s books weren’t going to do it. The books were cute though. The books were adorable. I still make them for my grandchildren on occasion. I didn’t do Easter books. You’re absolutely right. I was like, “I could see that.” It is interesting how we met in the worst circumstance in life. Here we are, years later, you have taken your pain and made purpose out of it because there is a demographic of people that you can help. It started with

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