It can be challenging to be honest about our grief, sometimes. But once you let go of the fear that holds you back from really confronting what grief looks like, it can make the journey much more bearable. Teressa Green-Clark is someone who is not afraid of being honest about her grief. And instead of getting stuck there, she is surviving it day by day. In this episode, she joins Tina Fornwald to talk about her grief journey and why being intentional has helped her along the way. Teressa lost her husband, her sweet face, in 2020. Since then, she has been putting one foot in front of the other, being intentional about confronting her grief. She shares how she is coping with the help of her husband’s words and the Bible. Teressa also talks about letting her grief out through therapy and writing, imparting her own experience to help others in the same journey. 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   Being Intentional Through The Grief Journey With Teressa Green-Clark We are about to have a conversation with Ms. Teressa Green-Clark. She has been a widow for years but she is so intentional. You are going to enjoy this conversation and be inspired. Let’s get into it.     Hello, Teressa. How are you? I’m good. Yourself? I’m good. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I’m glad to be here. I am glad to see you. Tell me, Teressa, what gives you hope? What gives me hope is being able to get through my daily activities despite the grief journey that I’m going through and the pain that sometimes I feel and getting through my day-to-day activities, knowing that I survived today and I can see tomorrow. You said that thing right because you’re surviving the grief journey that you’re on. What I hear is you’re not allowing yourself to get stuck there. You’re trying to survive this. It is a journey. Day by day, not being afraid to be honest about how you feel is one of the things that is so inspiring to me. When I see some of your posts, you are low-key and high-key educating people about what it’s like to deal with somebody that’s grieving and being honest to say, “Don’t get it twisted because I made it to work or I’m living that I’m not hurting even though I could be smiling. I could be smiling one moment and I could be missing a beautiful face another moment.” That’s okay because that’s what grief looks like. You mentioned grieving. Whom are you grieving? Tell us the story of that love. I’m grieving my husband, Willis Clark III. It’s different without him. I met him through a friend. We met in the early part of 2015. It wasn’t long before he knew that he wanted to make me his wife. How long is not long? Probably about a year. We gave ourselves a year of trial and became friends first. What stood out to me when I met him was when he called me on the phone. Most guys want your number so they can get to know you and probably sleep with you but he wasn’t that guy and I felt it. He was like, “What do you like to do? I’m a family guy. I like to do this and that.” We exchange things we like to do. He said, “I want to do some more talking and conversating with you but before, can I ask you something? Can I pray with you?” I was like, “Prayers are always in order.” He was like, “I like that.” He prayed with me. We prayed. Before we got off the phone, we prayed again. That was something from day one until death did us part. We will not start our day out without praying together and we will not end it without praying together.   On the first phone, he said, “Can I pray with you?” Talk about setting the atmosphere. Talk about expectations being risen. Where did you go from there? How long did you talk before you saw each other again? He lived here in Illinois and I was still in Mississippi going to school. I graduated in December 2015. We met at the top of 2015. We talked and conversated daily for 2 and 3 times a day, checking on each other. We became friends before we became anything else. Mind you, he was a widower. He made it his business to let me know, “I’m a widower,” and how long he and his wife have been married. I respected that. Back to us, we talked, conversated, and got to know each other. My sister is another person whom I’m grieving, Ms. Bessie Tinsley. I lost her in October 2022. Her birthday is April 10th. I was coming to visit her birthday party. That was going to be the first time we ever saw each other eye-wise. We talked on the phone but that was going to be our first time seeing each other. That was 4 or 5 months after the talk on the phone. When you spoke the first time, you had never met in person. We have never met in person. You’ve been talking for five months over the phone. When I told him that my sister was having a party up there and that I was going to come to it, he said, “We can have our first date if that’s okay.” I said, “I’m going to do the little family thing. Later,