Widow

How To Dream Again After Losing Your Spouse: Finding Hope, Healing & Purpose With Chanoa Inez

Podcast /
Widowhood Real Talk with Tina | Chanoa Inez | Dream Again After Grief

  In this inspiring episode of Widowhood Real Talk with Dr. Tina, Dr. Tina welcomes Chanoa Inez, author of Dream On: How to Create the New Life of Your Dreams After Upheaval or Loss. Chanoa shares her remarkable journey after the sudden loss of her partner while traveling abroad and the long road of healing that followed. Together, they discuss what it takes to move beyond survival mode, rediscover hope, and intentionally create a meaningful life after devastating loss. Whether you’re newly widowed or years into your grief journey, this conversation offers practical strategies, heartfelt encouragement, and the reminder that while grief changes your life forever, it doesn’t have to end your dreams. If you’ve been wondering whether joy, purpose, and hope are still possible, this episode is for you. 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     How To Dream Again After Losing Your Spouse: Finding Hope, Healing & Purpose With Chanoa Inez Our conversation with Chanoa Inez is going to be something you will remember for quite a while. Chanoa talks about being stuck in a cloud of grief and feeling like she can never get herself out of it. There was the moment where she realized she deserved more, and she realized she could and deserved and had the capacity to dream on. Let’s get into this conversation now.       Chanoa, welcome to the Widowhood. Thank you, Dr. Tina. When you hear Welcome to The Widowhood, what do you think? Rethinking the Definition of Widowhood To Widowhood, even though technically a part of it, I’ve never used that word. I guess first because I was not married, but second because I always think of it more like someone who’s maybe in the last chapter in their life, or they feel like they’re the last chapter of their lives, and they decided I’m never going to try. I’m never going to grow for love again. That was it. Now I will be alone forever. That is never something I’ve heard in the context of this show, but there are a lot of people that feel like that in widowhood. That word makes you feel like I’m done. I do not have anything to hope for. That life has completed itself. That’s because widowhood is often connected to someone older, someone who is way past in their life and has done all the different things, but yet they’re not done. It’s never. People do not feel like it’s connected to someone younger. Now you mentioned you’re part of it, but not part of it. Can you elaborate on that a little bit more? I would say because, when my boyfriend passed away, we had plans to get married. He even wanted to start having children shortly before he passed away. I delayed it because I said, “We’re moving to another country.” Obviously I had some guilt about that, as you can imagine. It would not have, it was not supposed to be that way. We were not married. Everyone considered us like, that’s it. I was the stepmother basically to his son, and we lived together. I would say technically, I think they usually reserve it for people who are married. Do you think that’s unfair considering the level of commitment that you had and how invested you were, and people are not seeing what you’ve lost for what you have because of a term? Yes, thankfully, like family and friends, nobody looked at it that way. They knew how we were. They were inseparable, and everyone knew our commitment to each other. It was complicated, in some ways, like, for example, we pulled our funds and moved to a foreign country, and he passed away within 24 hours. We were not married. I had no access to the funds. Thankfully, I had friends who helped me out. Protecting Assets in Unmarried Relationships Eventually, his family was able to get that money out. It was just able to be like, let that be for his son. Those are the kinds of things you do not think about. You’re like young people, and you’re like, “We’re moving and we need a foreign bank account,” and all these things. There are so many technical ways, like even if somebody ends up in a hospital and they have not passed away, where if you’re not married, then it’s very difficult because technically that paperwork, they’re going to see things differently and you’ll lose access to certain privileges, I’d say. I did not think about this when we had our pre-episode conversation, but hearing you talk about it now, what advice would you give to someone who’s in between? We’re married, and we’re in this committed relationship that would be a good safeguard for them and their partner. It really depends on the nuances of what they need to protect. I would definitely say some paperwork, for example, us deciding, “Let’s put our money together and put it in this account. My name should have been on the account. There should have been some there.” We’re just thinking. We’re young, of course. We’re waking up tomorrow, and everything’s fine. There’s nothing to do there. Just that, like, see what nuances you have together. You live together, and one of you owns the house? If something happened, would you want the other person to have that house? This is paperwork that needs to be taken care of because you’re completely shut out if anything happens, regardless of family’s efforts. Thank you for that. That is going to ring true to people because people that are tuning in

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A Second Chance At Beautiful Love: Navigating Grief And Dating With Marketta Davis

Podcast /
Widowhood Real Talk with Tina | Marketta Davis | Grief And Dating

  Grief and dating do not exist in opposite poles. There is no hard and fast rule on how long someone should wait to date after being widowed. Grief for a spouse never goes away, and if we treat grief and dating as mutually exclusive, we’re never going to have another chance at creating a wonderful romantic relationship with another human being. But we all deserve a second chance at beautiful love. As she continues sharing her story, Marketta Davis shows us how this is possible without ever once denying that her love and grief for her lost loved one is still with her. — Watch the episode here   Listen to the podcast here   A Second Chance At Beautiful Love: Navigating Grief And Dating With Marketta Davis My friend Marketta is here, continuing to share her journey with us. As she ended that last episode, that was the beginning of her being in the widowhood. We are going to pick up and continue sharing where her journey went and where it is now.     You stepped into widowhood, and where do we go from there, Marketta? Pregnant and lonely. From the time he passed through homegoing celebrations, the funeral, and all the beginning or the ending things, I should say there are tons of people around all the time. People bringing food, consoling, saying helpful things, saying ignorant things. Everyone is around. My neighborhood even started a food train for me. They signed up for different days. I wasn’t mean, but I wasn’t the friendly neighbor. Danny would come home and say, “Mr. Davis, how are you doing?” I’d come home and bolt in the house. I’m off work, and I’m done peopling for the day. Don’t talk to me. Once this happened, none of that mattered. My community is very diverse, so I got to try so many different things. At this point, I still was so far gone. The base, his unit, had a babysitting train, which is what I could call it. I was never left alone, at least for the first 2 or 3 weeks. One person would come in, stay a designated amount of hours, then another person. I remember there was a gap one time and no one was there. I flipped all the way out. I wasn’t scared of being in the house where he died. I was scared of being there without him. I called my mom, “No one’s here. They said they’d be here. What do I do?” I’m screaming. She gets a hold of someone in the unit. They were running behind, but that’s all. She finally made it. She brought her daughter. Everyone was so sweet and treaded very lightly for the most part. After all of that dies down, we’re stuck in this alternate reality while everybody else gets to go back to their life. May I ask, how did this trigger or impact your depression and bipolar and everything else? Though, as it turns out, the type of wonderful medication that I’m on is not very baby-friendly. I had been off my medication since we started trying to get pregnant in 2014, the whole time. Danny was left to fend for himself when it came to taking care of my ass. It was hard. It was a very hard journey. They offered to put me on baby-safe medications, but I was like, no, there’s already enough risk. I know I’m going to push through this non-medicated. Danny’s like, “Danny is in the back talking to the doctor, so forgive what she said.” “We slip a little something into something like.” “Put it in the peanut butter as you get to the door.” “Have this biscuit. They’re so yummy.” I’m on nothing but prenatal at this point. It was hard, but here’s the but. I had what my friends dubbed a unicorn pregnancy. No morning sickness. My feet swelled once at eight months. No mood swings. I was barely hungry. I could barely eat. My healthy weight is about 175. I got down to 160 before the baby started growing. All I could eat was salads and potatoes. I had none of the typical symptoms of pregnancy. I wasn’t uncomfortable unless her stingy ass was hungry and she made sure I knew. The stomach cramps were ridiculous like, “I’m getting food. Can you pipe down?” Other than that and mild heartburn, it was like an outside of the obvious. It was an easy pregnancy physically. I think me not being on medication but having those other happy hormones from the baby floating around. I managed. I had the grief, obviously, but I didn’t have any diagnostic bipolar episodes. It was all the grief. I managed and it was hard for me to get back on the medication because they wanted to put me back on it when I was breastfeeding and I was worried, but I did it. They’re like, “Now that she’s not in vitro, or in uterine, whatever they call it, it’s safe. You’re fine.” I did it for her because it went downhill fast, postpartum-wise. During the pregnancy, I was okay as far as my diagnosis. That’s the medical part. Who was there when your daughter was born, and what is her name, if you’re willing to share? Her legal name or what I call her under my breath? It’s your episode. Say what you want to say. You called her your stingy ass, so maybe that’s what you’ve been calling her. I don’t know, maybe that’s her name forever. My husband was very close to his grandmother, and so was I. His grandmother’s name was Lilli and my grandmother’s name was Resa. They had both passed on by this point. We were going to call her Lillian Resa Davis. That’s what we were going to call her. I was going to nickname her Lily Pad. I saw that coming. My little Lily Pad. Danny said that was gay. No offense

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Shipwrecked: A Widow’s Journey To Healing, Parenting, And Dating Again With Jeanette Koncikowski

Podcast /
WRT Jeanette Koncikowski | Widow’s Journey

  Guilt can sometimes show up in grief. For Jeanette Koncikowski, being a widow brought up many realizations about the challenges that are often overlooked as we grieve our partners. We tend to look back and feel guilty and ashamed, thinking we aren’t good enough. In this conversation, Jeanette joins Tina Fornwald to lay bare her experiences and realizations when she lost her husband. When did she start being comfortable in the process of making choices on her own? How did she begin untangling the layers of guilt and shame? What does the healing process look like for a widow? How does she handle parenting with grief? What is life after loss for Jeanette? Find out the answers to these questions and more as you follow this episode. Plus, hear about Jeanette’s book, Shipwrecked: A Memoir of Widowed Parenting and Life After 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 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   Shipwrecked: A Widow’s Journey To Healing, Parenting, And Dating Again With Jeanette Koncikowski Jeanette, welcome to the show. Tina, thank you so much for having me. I am glad to have this conversation. You can tell people how I tracked you down on the internet and stalked you to be here because I have no shame about that. I am always intentionally looking for people who have a voice, people who have something to share that will encourage other people. I believe it was on Twitter where I stalked you and said, “This would be a good voice to bring to the widowhood.” Thank you for not thinking of some internet creeper or something like that. I’m happy to connect. We did connect on Twitter. It’s been a great resource. Grief Twitter is a real thing, and it’s been a huge resource in my healing. Thank you for saying that. Before we get into your story, just on that topic, as far as the internet, I know a lot of times people say, “I don’t want to be on the internet. I don’t want to be doing all these things.” Elaborate a little bit more on how the internet or social media has been a positive and helpful resource for you.     I was widowed in the fall of 2014. While there was a local widow support group, everyone was 30 or 40 years older than me, and our challenges weren’t the same. I was raising two young kids. While I did get support from that group, initially, the generational difference was hard to meet in the middle. It was hard because when you’re 60 or 70, your issues and needs as a widowed person are very different than a 35-year-old. I had to go to the internet because it was the only place I could find other young widowed parents. That’s how I started the @WidowedParentProject, was looking for a community that was going through similar struggles as widows and parents raising grieving children. Let’s talk about how you and your husband met or who you were before you even met him. What were some of your interests? Grief is part of our story, but it’s not all about who we are. I want to know who you are as a person. We were fifteen when we met. We had 21 years together. He was my high school sweetheart, so I don’t know what my adult self would’ve been like without him, but we grew up together. We were very young when we met. We were sophomores in high school. On the first day of sophomore year, we met. It was hard for me to know what my life was like before Mark. It was my childhood, we grew up together. In that sense, when I lost him, I didn’t know how to adult without him. That’s been part of my widow’s journey in learning how to be alone and how to make decisions alone. We met in high school, Spanish class, and we were together for many years. My late husband’s name is also Mark, which I thought was very interesting. You touch on something regarding when your Mark passed and adulating, decision making, also identity. Would you share how you came to realize about making choices on your own and how you became comfortable with that? What that process was like for you? Mark and I had 21 years together. As I said, we were married in 2012 and got married when we were 24. We had a very codependent relationship. I guess it wasn’t the healthiest relationship. When you get together that young, sometimes isn’t. We were separated the year before he died. We were separated for thirteen months, but our marriage was in the process of some deep healing. We were not divorcing, but we were living apart while going to marriage counseling. It was that year before his death that I learned how to live alone. I look back and I thank God that I had that year because if I had lost him the way I lost him, and I hadn’t learned how to sleep alone, how to take care of myself alone, and how to go out to eat alone, it would’ve been that much harder for me when he died. In some ways, that year, I told myself God was preparing me to learn how to be alone and I needed some staggered time to do that. It was some difficult circumstances under which he died. Part of that was that we were separated when he died, which is also something that informed who I am

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

Podcast /
WRT 38 | Widow

  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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Life After A Great Loss: How A Widower Built A Life For Himself With Carey Christian

Podcast /
WRT 15 | Life After Loss

  When you meet the right person, you begin to look forward to a lifetime with them. Unfortunately, life has its way of reminding us of our impermanence by taking the person we love the most. No one can prepare you for that loss. Here to open up about his life after the passing of his wife is Carey Christian. In this candid conversation with Tina Fornwald, he tells us about his life, his beautiful wife Michelle, and her death. From their great moments (meeting and loving each other and finding their love for traveling) to their heartbreaks (receiving Michelle’s diagnosis and later on, taking her last breath), Carey bares it all. He then tells us about where he is now and the life he is developing for himself. Tune in to this episode and let Carey’s story give you hope, healing, and encouragement to live life after a great 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 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   Life After A Great Loss: How A Widower Built A Life For Himself With Carey Christian Hey, Carey. How are you? I’m good. Yourself? I’m doing well. No complaints. That’s good. Where are you in the world?     Is that physically or in my mind, or both? You can answer both or whichever you want. Physically, I’m living in Cartagena, Colombia. I’ve been living here for a few years. Where am I at mentally is a good question. I don’t know if I can answer that. Maybe as we talk, the answer to that will come out. Maybe we’ll both discover the answer. That’s fair enough. How did you get to Colombia? Even before Chelle passed, I told her that I wanted to move to the Caribbean because I don’t like cold weather. She doesn’t like cold weather and we both love the Caribbean. After she passed, I started physically looking for property in the Caribbean. My first choice was Tulum right in the common Mexico area. I went there in 2019 and looked at properties. I saw some beautiful properties with great prices, but Mexico has laws that, to me, were a little complicated for foreigners to purchase property in those areas that they call restricted areas. Those were near the border on the beach. I visited here. I came here on a cruise ship for one day and said, “That’s nice.” I came back in March 2020, the weekend before everybody stopped traveling for COVID, with some friends. I’m like, “That’s nice. I like that.” It was magical for many reasons. It was so magical that I immediately booked a return flight for when Colombia originally planned to open its borders for traveling again. It was June 2020, then they pushed it back to July, August, and September. In September 2020, they finally opened up. I came back in for two weeks in September 2020. The clubs and the bars were closed. All the party stuff was closed, and I still loved it. It was still magical. I went back to North Carolina. I had already put my house on the market. I sold my house in November 2020, my property, and one of my cars. I put the rest of my things in storage, gave some away, and moved back here. I came back here for six weeks in December 2020. The 6 weeks turned into 2 years and 2 months. I was working for the school system. We were working online like most schools. In February 2021, they said, “We’re bringing the students back into the building.” I had maybe 2 and a half or 3 weeks left in the purchasing process for my apartment. I told my principal, “I need two more weeks. I don’t have any vacation, but I got two weeks of sick days. Let’s work this thing out.” He said, “Okay.” This was what was aggravating to me about the whole thing. This was not an email. This wasn’t a text message. It was a phone call. We were talking. After a week, he sent me a message, “You haven’t been here in a week. You put in five sick days. What’s going on?” I said, “We talked about this.” He said, “You got to come back or resign.” I said, “Thank you for your time.” That’s not a decision. That’s a no-brainer for me. You checked them out. I had already invested the money. I had to be here to do things physically to complete the process. I was like, “You’re trying to tell me to choose between that and working for a school system where there are 200 to 300 vacancies?” Nobody is beating down the doors to get in there. Let’s circle back. Chelle, you mentioned her name. Let’s talk about who she is to you. Michelle Renee Christian was my everything. If during COVID she had still been alive and COVID lasted for 10 years, there was quarantine, people couldn’t go out, and I was in the house with her for 10 years, I would’ve been happy. How did you meet? We met at a birthday party. She knew the wife who the birthday party was for. I knew the husband who was throwing the birthday party. That’s where we met. This is going to be funny. I was there with my friend. The party was dry, so we left and came back in an hour. She and her cousins were there. I saw her and I’m like, “That woman is gorgeous. I might say something to her tonight before I leave.” She shot me down.

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A New Life After Widowhood: Words Of Wisdom From A 21 Year Widow With Alma Davis

Podcast /
WRT 14 | Life After Widowhood

  When my late husband passed, I met Alma Davis in CA to attend a widow conference, which was extremely helpful for me in learning to be a widow. In this episode, Alma shares her journey of being a widow for 21 years. Alma shares about her life, how she met her husband, Tony, his death, and the life she developed after widowhood. You are going to enjoy her transparency, her ability to convey the importance of her faith as it relates to dealing with the death of her husband, her professional background, and how it impacted her life. Tune in for more! 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 New Life After Widowhood: Words Of Wisdom From A 21 Year Widow With Alma Davis Our conversation for this episode is with Ms. Alma Davis. You are going to enjoy her transparency, her ability to convey the importance of her faith as it relates to dealing with the death of her husband, Tony, her professional background, and how it impacted her life. Let’s get into the conversation now.     Welcome to the show, Alma. Thank you. Thank you for being here. We know it is a Saturday morning and Alma is on the West Coast. She has gotten up bright and early to be here to join the show. Yes, I have, bright and early. Alma, what gives you hope right now? I’m looking forward to the future. It’s bright and sunshiny as it always is in San Diego for the most part. I’m about to finish my seminary journey, which has been a journey, especially with grief and health conditions which are not unusual as it relates to our grief. I’m about to complete May 27th, 2023, which is my daughter’s 36th birthday. I’m really excited about that because I’m in the process of implementing a mental health group program that was created by Joe Padilla. It’s called Living Grace. Anyone who’s dealt with anxiety, depression, or any other mental health issues can go online with me and join this group. I’m currently in the process of creating some peer support. It gives me great hope because I’m booming with excitement and opportunities that will come my way. You have written a book if I recall in this journey. I did. It was called A Widow’s Virtue. It was about my process through grief. It begins prior to the moment that Tony passed away. It goes through my journey. It was incredible writing it because I felt like Groundhog Day. I was constantly in it. I tried to write it in such a way that it shared the experience, but at the same time demonstrated the hope that was there. Looking back on it retrospectively, I’m not certain that it showed enough hope because I did have some comments from other widows and they said it was too raw, but it’s out there. I want the raw because that’s what the real talk is about. If we don’t have the rawness and the realness, how do we know what to prepare for? That’s true. I’m not always sure that I talked about the preparation as I did about what God was doing and showing me. Of course, the rawness of my desires for that future. I had future expectations about how my husband and I would live, especially after the children were out of the house. I wasn’t too graphic about those things, but certainly, when you have an empty nest, there’s some excitement that you had to put on reserve. The show is for ages eighteen and older. This is not for children. I talked about some fun times that we could have during that emptiness season that we didn’t have a full opportunity to experience prior to my getting pregnant. I got married at a really young age. Tell us about who Tony is and how you guys met on your journey. Tony was the love of my life. I was in the Air Force Reserve and I had prayed, “Lord, I want to go to England where our six-week tour was going to be.” He made that happen for me. I met the love of my life while I was there. We worked in the same building. I remember I had on my fatigues and I was walking up to the building. There was this guy at the door. I had my hands in my pocket. In the military, you’re not supposed to have your hands in your pocket, but I’m a reservist and I’m spending too much time in the real world. There’s this beautiful guy at the door with a grand piano smile, and he was like, “Why you are playing pocket pool?” I was like, “Excuse me. Who are you to be telling me what to do?” I went on into the building and he disappeared. He knew my boss from previous reserve trips to England. He arranged for me to come to his office because one of my girlfriends was working in the office with him. My boss was like, “You need to go see Cassandra.” I was like, “I’m busy. I don’t need to go see Cassandra.” Eventually, I gave in because he was nagging me. Mr. Davis is in that office with Cassandra. It was a setup, but it was a good setup. For the time that I was there, the whole story unfolded. I remember one occasion right now. I wish I could have sent you this picture, but everything is packed away in

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Tina’s Story: Healing From The Death Of The Person We Planned To Spend Our Life With

Podcast /
WRT 1 | Death

  Nothing prepares us for the loss of a loved one, especially the one person we plan to spend the rest of our entire life with. We are pushed into this difficult path of grief and sometimes, it can feel like the entire journey through it can swallow us up. Baring her soul and heartache with us to offer hope during this tough period in our lives, our very own Tina Fornwald shares her own story. Her friend, Jerri Newson, takes over and interviews Tina about how she navigated through the grieving process from the death of her husband that she spent 32 years with. She also talks about what prompted her to create a show around widowhood, loss, and death. Being in this dark place can feel lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. Let Tina and the stories of many others bring you hope through it. — Watch the episode here   Listen to the podcast here   Tina’s Story: Healing From The Death Of The Person We Planned To Spend Our Life With Welcome to Widowhood Real Talk with Tina. You’re going to have an opportunity to get to know me better. In that chair is going to be my good friend, Jerri Newson. She’s going to give you an opportunity to know a little bit more about me while we’re here, while we’re doing this. I want you to get your tissue ready because this is not a pretend conversation. This is a real discussion about the death of my husband whom I spent 32 years with. This is an opportunity for you and me to connect on a very organic level and realize I am here for the real talk. I’m looking forward to hearing from you, your friends, your family, and your loved ones as we go on this journey together. — Jerri. Tina, how are you? I’m good, and you? I’m doing great. Good. Thanks for having me over. Thank you, and thank you all for being here with us for the very first episode of Widowhood Real Talk with Tina. This is my dear friend, Jerri Newson, who has agreed to interview me to get a little bit more information to you as far as while we’re here. I want to say I am sorry for your loss. I am sorry for the person that is no longer here in your life and that has driven you to be here with this conversation. You’re doing fine. We are here together. Tell us a little bit about Tina. I was born Tina Beckom in Chicago, Illinois. I am 1 of 5 siblings, 4 girls, and 1 boy. Part of my hood being from Chicago is my family. You will meet many of them in a little bit. Our brother is the last to be born. One of the jokes in our family is that we’re only here because they didn’t have him first because if he would’ve been born first, there would’ve been no reason for my dad to push through all those girls. Thank you, Jesse, for being last. I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. I went in the Army for 21 years as a logistician and retired as a Warrant Officer in the United States Army. I went on to Civil Service where I currently work full-time now. I was married to Mark Fornwald for 29 years, which is why we’re having this conversation. I have two children, Katherine Alexander Fornwald, and I love people. I love connecting with new people. I could be in a laundromat and start talking to somebody about what may seem the most random situation and people become transparent because I believe that we all want to connect with someone, but we’re afraid of being transparent. We’re afraid of making ourselves vulnerable, and I love when people open up and become who they are and share that. You’ll learn more about me as we go on this journey. I don’t want to give all the tea away right away, so there’s more to come, but that’s a good introduction as far as who I am. I can attest that she does walk up to people or if they come even within any distance of her, she will speak to them and start asking questions. They like it, though. People like that. Tell us why you started the show. Grief is a terrible thing. We have many opportunities and so many books about how to prepare to have a baby, and how to prepare for a wedding, but there is not a lot out there on how to prepare for the loss of the person whom we plan to spend our entire life with. Mark, my husband, passed from a massive heart attack while we were on a lover’s weekend on March 11th, 2017, my entire world was crushed. I did not know how I was going to survive that. Someone I know that was a widow reached out to me immediately and said, “Tina, I cannot attend that funeral but this is the number to my therapist.” I was like, “I understand.” I started meeting with that therapist the day that I viewed my husband’s body for the first time. I reached out to so many widows and widowers, and they embraced me. They shared their story. They shared how they have been surviving this. Five years forward, I am having conversations with other widows or widowers that people are connecting me with. Each one of those conversations is so enriching and helpful, but I know that I cannot talk to everyone one-on-one. My desire, in God’s prompting, is to share my story with people this way, to be able to give hope and encouragement, to let everybody know you are not alone, and this is what grief looks like. For the people in your hood, your family, your friends, your coworkers, to be able to ear hustle into some of these conversations

Tina’s Story: Healing From The Death Of The Person We Planned To Spend Our Life With Read More »

Widowhood Secret Santa Program Application

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Bringing Joy & Support to Widowed Families

This application is open to all widows and widowers with children between the ages of newborn to 18 years old. Special needs children over the Age of 18 are also eligible.

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  • Nominations will be announced on September 1st.

Walk For Love 2025

Support grief awareness and Walk For Love in style. Proceeds help fund free grief support programs. Merchandise is available now, with new batches printing every 15 days — so order early to ensure you receive your items before the August kickoff on August 3,  2025

🛍️ How It Works

- Order anytime — Bonfire prints new merchandise every 15 days

- First shipping window: Orders placed by July 11 ship between July 1–11

- All items ship directly from Bonfire

- Order early to wear your gear for Walk For Love in August!

👕 Apparel – T-Shirts, Sweatshirts & Hoodies

🛒 Order here: https://www.bonfire.com/walk-for-love-2025-1

💲 Price: $23–$42

📏 Sizes: Youth to 3XL

Over 20 different colors

📝 Notebook

🛒 Order here: https://bonfire.com/walk-for-love-2025-notebook-1

💲 Price: $22.99

Great for journaling, writing affirmations, or gift-giving.

☕ Mug

🛒 Order here: https://bonfire.com/walk-for-love-2025-mug

💲 Price: $19.99

Sip your morning coffee with a message of love and remembrance.

🚶‍♀️ Travel Mug

🛒 Order here: https://bonfire.com/walk-for-love-2025-travel-mug-1

💲 Price: $24.99

Keep your drinks hot or cold while walking for love.

💧 Water Bottle

🛒 Order here: https://bonfire.com/walk-for-love-2025-water-bottle-2

💲 Price: $29.99

Hydration meets heart — perfect for walkers everywhere.

📣 Additional Notes

At checkout, encourage shoppers to select your board member's name from the referral dropdown to help us track outreach.

Use and promote hashtags: #WFL2025 and #WRTWT

Perfect for walking during the event or repping all year long.

Mental Health Walkathon to provide encouragement and inspiration for the grieving struggling with depression and isolation.

During the Walkathon, we walk together, united in our mission to support mental health. From August 3 - 9, 2025 we encourage you to walk one mile daily. Share your journey by posting a picture on your favorite social media platform with #WRTWT #WALKFORLOVE, and let’s inspire others to join us.

Funds from the Walkathon will allow Widowhood Real Talk With Tina to conduct an Annual Grief Garden and a Butterfly release ceremony and provide participants journals & pens.

Three ways to participate

Purchase merchandise ~ In Development

Donate: https://app.99pledges.com/fund/walkforlov

Make your pledge, 1-mile daily day August 4 – 10, and post #WRTWT #WALKFORLOVE: https://app.99pledges.com/fund/walkforlov

To Start your pledge team, email widowhoodrealtalk@gmail.com for details.

Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1223004923649?aff=oddtdtcreator