What does it really mean to move forward—not just move on—after unimaginable loss?” In this heartfelt continuation of last week’s episode, AJ Coleman returns to The Widowhood to open up about his journey as a single father after the devastating loss of his wife, Cory. With rare vulnerability, he shares the quiet strength it took to raise his daughter alone, the moment he found his voice, and the surprising way writing a book helped him heal. We talk about grief, growth, and the pressure to find purpose too soon. If you’ve ever questioned how to start again, this episode reminds us: healing isn’t linear—and you don’t have to rush your way through it. Let’s dive in. 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   From Heartbreak to Healing: Life After Loss With AJ Coleman Our guest for part two is AJ. We are talking about his journey of being a single parent, how to determine the right time for dating, and his concept between moving forward and moving on, and a book he’s written. Let’s get into this conversation now.         AJ, welcome to the show. I should say, welcome back to the show. Yes, great to be back, and thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Thank you. The conversation we had. They’ll listen to it, but they understood like all the knowledge you had from the catfish and everything else. This conversation is focused on your journey, which has made what you do and how you show up so passionate. Thank you for taking the time twice to get together and have this conversation. I want to start with something we were talking about a little bit in the pre-conversation. I want to just say thank you for bringing your voice to this conversation because I believe, and tell me your thoughts, it’s really hard for men to make themselves vulnerable and just transparent and share something as personal as this. What are your thoughts on that? The Challenge Of Opening Up About Grief & Loss I agree. At the time, it’s very rare when I first started speaking about my grief loss and being a widower at such a young age, with my wife’s passing, the brain cancer, and raising my daughter as a single dad. Many people just didn’t talk about it, especially men, because we have that idea that we’re supposed to be macho, we’re supposed to have all the answers, we’re supposed to have these even-toned feelings. We learned over time. Perception changes that the social media with the amount of resources becoming available where men, like myself, that find it’s okay to talk about the feeling, it’s okay to talk about the losses and join different groups of people to help each other through these tough times. Back when my father was little, this was never a discussion point. It was not even a thought. It just became part of society. That generation as they continue to mature and eventually into the adulthood is they would carry that same notion that we don’t talk about anything. It’s not proper. Today, I think it’s healthy. I think it’s a very important attribute that everybody talks about the feelings. Right or wrong, different or not, it’s important because that’s how you heal, especially during a grief loss. That rings so true to me. My question is, how did you go from the mindset that you were raised under to that first time that you started talking about this? What was that pivotal point? What did that look like for you, starting to articulate this? At the time of my wife’s passing, I did not know that I was pretty much preparing my whole life to handle different grief losses. Only it wasn’t a grief loss of a loved one. It could be a loss of companionship, could be a loss of an ability. It could be a loss of just having anxiety or something like that. How I prepare is just internally, is that sometimes you don’t know what you’re made of until the unthinkable happens. That’s where you start building up that self-esteem, that confidence. Sometimes you just throw everything out the window and say, “I need to talk about this.” As I continued on my journey to self-healing, I realized it’s not necessarily about me anymore. It’s about helping others overcome and cope, and eventually take steps forward within their lives so they can influence others. When we go through these types of unthinkable losses, there’s just something alive that comes in within you. I think a lot of that’s just personality-driven experience, but also being comfortable in who you are and where you want to go with it. Thank you for sharing that, and your wife’s name if you don’t mind us honoring her. Sure. My wife’s name is Cory. Have you always been comfortable with who AJ is? No. I had lived a very sheltered life about who I was. In a sense, I had grown up with a loss of an ability, which is a hearing impairment, not understanding how it would impact me not only as a child, but as a young adult in the workforce, and who I am. I chose to keep my entire life private. One of the things Cory taught me over time was that nobody cares. Nobody thinks that we are our own worst credit of ourselves. We get it into our mindset that everybody’s talking about it. Have you ever go to a room and you walk in and people are engaged in conversation, and