Grief is a powerful and transformative experience that touches us all in different ways. In this poignant episode, Amy Shaw shares her journey through profound love and the depths of grief following the loss of her husband. Married for nearly 25 years and having built a large family, Amy faced the unimaginable when her husband received a devastating diagnosis. This conversation explores the many facets of grief, from the initial shock and pain to the ongoing process of healing and finding strength. Amy’s story offers insights into navigating grief, honoring loved ones, and discovering resilience in the face of loss. It’s a testament to the enduring power of love and the human spirit’s capacity to find meaning even amidst profound grief.

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

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The Complexities Of Grief: Finding Strength After Loss With Amy Shaw

Our conversation with Ms. Amy Shaw is going to be so insightful. We’re going to talk about how to navigate your personal grief along with ten children, leaving a legacy for your husband and the impact that your grief journey can make in the world. Let’s get into this conversation now.

Amy, welcome to the widowhood.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

You are welcome. When you hear, “Welcome to the widowhood,” what comes to mind to you?

Belonging to a club that no one ever chooses to come into, but life circumstances bring you there and here we are.

Entering Widowhood: Amy’s Story & Early Grief

I would agree. If you would, in saying that, would you give us a little bit about how you became a part of the widowhood?

Yeah. My husband and I were married for 24 and a half years. Our plan was to make it to 50 and that was not the plan that the Lord had, but we lived a wonderful life. He was the love of my life. I was the love of his. We ministered together overseas and we built a large family together of ten children. We were very surprised that he, at age 43, was diagnosed with the most aggressive possible brain cancer, glioblastoma. He was given 6 to 12 months to live. It was a real shock for us. We actively celebrated his life and he was given a wonderful 37 months after that diagnosis. We celebrated, we lived well, we made memories. He left an amazing legacy and he is now with the Lord.

That is a lot that you said in a very short period of time and thank you for being willing to share that. How long did it take you to be able to share that in that manner?

I think we were very open with our friends and our supporters because we had been missionaries. We’d been seen by people. The whole time that we were going through cancer, we had people involved. I think being able to see it in a nice little package like that certainly has come later. Yeah, we involved people all the way through.

Involving people in being able to say that, there are people reading this conversation whose spouse literally may have died this month. The idea of mentioning their death elicits so many different emotions and they’re wanting to know how were you able to have these conversations and not act in that way?

I think we had this perspective that death was a doorway between this earthly life and our eternal life. We spent a lot of time talking with our children, talking together as a couple that as much as we hated the fact that he was being taken out early, he died at age 47, we knew that if this was the plan of God, that we couldn’t really fight against it.

We prayed and we had people all around the world praying for total healing. I really believe that he did get that for about sixteen months where he had no treatment. I think our whole perspective on death was this is going to be a temporary separation, that I will eventually join him in eternity and that the Lord’s plan is for him to go off early and that he has more work for me to do.

I think having that perspective all the way through, I’m not saying that it made the pain any less, but I think even when we had the burial service, I remember it was raining and there were people standing there and at the end of it all, people were crying. I was like, “Guys, this isn’t the end of the story. He’s not staying in the grave. He is getting up out of this grave. This isn’t the end.”

I think having this way backed up per perspective on it helps me not lose hope and helps me remember that like where I am on the big timeline and I have this little window of time that I don’t know when my time is, but I have this little window of time that I can make impacts and influence the world. I don’t know. I see it in a different way, maybe.

Faith, Grief, And Finding Strength In Loss

I love that for you and I want to spend a little bit of time here, if we may. There are oftentimes I speak with people and the passing of their loved one actually pulls them away from God. They are mad, they are discouraged and they feel like their relationship with God failed them because this happened to them. What about your relationship with God did not allow that to happen, do you believe?

It didn’t happen. I think that’s because we had experienced a lot of grief beforehand in the building of our family. I mentioned ten children. I gave birth to 5 children and we lost 1 of those children and we buried him. In pregnancy, I had lost two before that. I think we had experienced grief and loss repetitively.

It was really during our son’s death that I really hammered out that no matter what my circumstances are, that God is good. I can’t use my circumstances to determine the attributes of God. That that’s not an accurate measuring tape that because my mind is too finite, I think. I had that perspective going through that. I’m going to be in pain. This is not the way it’s supposed to be.

It hurt like crazy but I had hammered out that God was good and I was going to get the most out of that experience because I had to go through it anyway. I didn’t want to waste that pain. I had already experienced those losses. My father-in-law passed and then my husband gets sick. I think we had already strengthened that grief muscle. I had already learned that I don’t want to ask God why because my brain is too finite to comprehend the answer, even if God would answer.

Thank you for sharing that. Just a couple more questions while we’re here. Sometimes people hear conversations about God and faith and they say, you really don’t know what’s going to happen on the other side of that. How are you so that what you believe is the truth?

I get all my truth from the Bible. There are so many scriptures that talk about what is coming and encourage one another in this. I think there’s an abundant life that Jesus came to give us. I am living that. I was at a conference and I heard someone say that Jesus said, “I came to give them life, and life abundantly”. You can live on either side of that comma. Do I want to just live life or do I want to have abundant life? I think having that unity with the Holy Spirit, what you’ve come through, it doesn’t matter what comes your way, you can experience that.

Thank you for that. The duality of pain and God’s goodness, it’s not one or the other. They are intertwined because God is with you in that pain. God is with you in that situation. It’s not a sense of abandonment.

Understanding Pain, God’s Purpose & The Idea Of Eternity

I think I used to think that God used suffering to teach us almost as if that was the only way he could teach us. I’ve really come to understand that that’s not the case. I don’t believe that God causes suffering. I don’t understand why he allows it. I don’t understand. I do believe that he’s a redeemer. He redeems our pain.

We had a baby that I lost in the early trimester and that baby’s due date was March 1st. Years later, we adopted a daughter and her birthday was March 1st. Just to see little things like that where God just redeems and redeems and he is so good. He is so loving. I don’t think that it’s one or the other. I think it’s that willingness to say I can’t comprehend all of God.

Sometimes I think we see opposing things like two hands coming together. Maybe we don’t see this middle portion, we see this coming in this way and we see this coming in this way. We say, “These have to be opposing.” We imagine that they’re two fists bumping each other, but really, they’re intertwined but we’re not privy to that middle portion. We don’t understand that. I don’t know why we don’t get full understanding in this life, but that gives me peace that there are things that is a mystery. I’m at peace with the mystery of God even if the mystery is uncomfortable to me.

Thank you. My final question while we’re here, you talked about meeting your husband on the other side of this and knowing that the Bible says that we are not given in marriage in eternity. What do you envision eternity looking like?

I don’t think I’ve spent enough time really dreaming, really imagining. I love the verse that says that he’s doing more than we can ask or imagine. I know that anything I come up with, it’s going to be far better than that. I used to really be upset about that, that we’re not given in marriage because I loved marriage, I really loved marriage.

I think I’ve come to realize that there’s something better than marriage. Marriage is a picture, of course, of Christ and his church. I think somehow, it’s better and we don’t need marriage in heaven. I can’t wait. I’m excited. I can’t wait to go and I can’t wait to lay hold of all that the Lord has prepared. I’m so excited and I’m okay not knowing.

Thank you. What was your husband’s name again?

Brian.

You talked about Brian’s legacy. What does that look like for you?

The Legacy Of Amy’s Late Husband, Brian

He was a creative person. He was very intentional in how he left things behind. I actually found an outline on our computer where he was outlining his own biography. He never wrote it. Even just having that outline shows me the things that were important to him. He purposely left a legacy video. He worked with Inheritance of Hope.

We were very blessed as a family to work with Inheritance of Hope, a nonprofit organization that comes alongside families where one of the parents has a terminal diagnosis. He recorded a beautiful hour-long legacy video where he talks to our children each one, and tells the story of his life, things that he wants them to know, dreams that he has for each of them. He was intentional in the last, I think, four months of his life. Unbeknownst to me, he was getting up early and he was writing letters to all of us.

When I went to get the clothes for the funeral home, actually, I opened his shirt drawer and underneath his shirts were over 180 letters that he had written. He had folded them all up like when we were in junior high and high school, like little notebook paper and tucked them in. He would write the name of the person on the outside. He left 10 for each of our 10 children. He left 71 notes for me, a note for his mom and for his brother. It was just really precious.

He was very intentional. In those letters, he was very specific. My daughter is getting married this summer and she was rereading her letters from dad and one of them said the qualities that he wanted her to look for in a husband. It was so cool because she was reading that to her fiancé and realized that the day that he wrote that was her fu was her fiancé’s birthday. Just things that you can’t make up, just so sweet. Brian was really intentional in those ways, but also as a family. Every Friday night, we had a game night and he specifically would take each kid out for dates and often we would do that together. He lived well.

I’m so glad I asked you that question. Have all the children seen the video in relation to their section? Were their dad speaking to them?

Actually, only one of our children have seen it all the way through. A couple of the kids have listened to some of it, and the others are just, at this point, not interested. I think that just allowing each person to go through that and to say, “This is okay, this is here.” I know for me, when I had those letters, I was very slow in reading them because I didn’t want to get to the last thing that was unknown because he’s gone and we can’t get more. I think there may be that feeling that if I watch this, that I’m out, that it’s all consumed. I don’t know, that would have to be a question for each of them.

Raising 10 Children & Helping Them Navigate Grief

Understood. Managing your grief and ten children, what are some lessons you’ve learned in that process?

I think honesty, authenticity, with the emotion. I learned through the losses of our babies and our son that I had to do grief work. It is work because I would rather busy myself with something else. Nobody wants to feel sad. I was just writing in my journal that I remember pleading with God that I just wanted a button to push in those early days. It would zap me two years out. I did not want to live those first years. I didn’t want to live where I was only one week out from his death. I didn’t want to go through that. In his wisdom, he didn’t let me. My feet had to sit in those hard times. I think now looking back, I’m so grateful for his wisdom in that because, once again, I see his faithfulness.

In the process of your own grief and managing your ten children and their grief, what are some lessons you’ve learned from that process?

I think the lesson of just allowing grief to come when it comes and not trying to shut it down and not trying to stuff it. My kids saw me cry all the time and they knew. I would just say, “I’m really overwhelmed right now. I need a minute.” I would excuse myself to the bathroom, to my bedroom, whatever. I would come back.

I sat with my kids as they would cry and wail, “I miss dad,” and just sit with them and say, “I miss him too. We don’t have the ability to fix it.” I think just sitting with them in that real emotion is really valuable. I know that’s what I want from my own friends to sit with me in the pain. I don’t want somebody to tell me, “He’s in a better place.” I don’t want to hear that. I need to be in that moment and hurt.

You talked about doing the work of grief. What is that exactly? That word work can seem very generic. What is some of the actual work that you had to do in your grief?

I’m remembering just days of sorrow and feeling that caving feeling in my chest where it’s all come down and I don’t feel strong and just crying out to the Lord and journaling. I think it’s journaling. I think it’s hunkered down on the floor, sobbing tears, going through boxes of tissues. I think that’s the work. I think coming through and using the Bible as a lament. There’s so many Psalms of like, “How long, Lord? When are you going to come back?” Choosing the end of those that yet I will put my trust in the Lord and I will praise him. The Bible tells us to rejoice in all things. I don’t feel like rejoicing. This seems like the worst possible thing.

I do remember a moment. I remember probably the first year, every single day I would have a moment in the day, usually in the morning where I had gotten up and I was doing things and my heart would flip and I would remember that he was dead. I would say, “Oh my gosh.” It was like, I would remember, “But you’ve already made it three days. You’ve already made it three months. God has already been faithful.” I did that. It would hit me fresh every day. “It’s really true, but yes, you have made it. God is faithful. You’re going to make it today.” I think that’s part of the work.

Turning Grief Into Impact & Finding Purpose Again

You also talked about the word impact. When do you recall when your grief changed from the heavy lamenting to impact in other places in the world?

That first year, my children would go to school during the day and I spent hours in the scriptures. I spent like all day that they were gone, like seven hours. I think now, “How did I do that?” I was so hungry and I was so desperate for God to show up that, that was what I was consuming. I think that is how he met me. He showed me that there’s waiting on the Lord and sitting with him and he was strengthening me, even though it felt wobbly.

I think people were encouraged, as I spent time with different people and I didn’t spend a lot of time in the beginning because that is one of the beauties of having a tragedy like that happen. Your whole calendar gets suddenly cleared and everybody’s like, “No problem, we’re going to cancel. Your husband passed.” I think when I did start to spend time with people again, I would share, like, “Listen to what the Lord showed me.” They were also just very surprised. I think that’s where that impact starts to happen.

How has that impact continued since that time?

I think it’s just grown as we have moved and we have sought to make a new tomorrow for ourselves. I ended up writing a book to help other people in that space when. My husband was diagnosed in 2018 and part of that three years went through the COVID and shut down. In the year 2019, the Lord really spoke to me and said, “I want you to write a book.” I was like, “I’m a little busy. I don’t know how to write a book. Yeah, I’ll get right on that, Lord,” which was funny. I really did feel the importance of writing right then because I knew that eventually, I would be a widow and I would have a new set of issues. I wanted to record my thoughts and my emotions during that time.

My book, I really feel called to minister to people that are in that space that also gets blindsided by a terminal diagnosis and like out of the blue, like, “Wait, what? We weren’t planning this.” How to navigate that window of time because it is hard. There’s no real playbook for how to do that. Part of the impact that I’m leaving is I want to show people that somebody has gone before them.

I’ve written this book and it’s got shortcuts for the medical side of things as well as tools to how to leave a legacy. Also, that perspective that I shared about just that we’re spiritual beings having a physical experience and our bodies are going to die and we are going to carry on. That’s part of the impact that is ongoing and speaking and sharing my story and coaching other people through this process.

You said speaking. What does that look like for you, speaking about your experience?

Writing A Book, Speaking About Loss & Coaching Others

Speaking to groups of people that need to hear that there’s another take on this that death doesn’t have to be this thing we fear. One of the things that we talked about a lot with our kids was that daddy’s walking down the red carpet to the door of eternity. It was our privilege to help Daddy do that. One of the things that we had talked about frequently was that when he’s approaching heaven and he’s getting ready for that, one of his big, heavy concerns is going to be how are we going to do. We can help dad get ready and we can help dad be excited about what God has got for him if we can confidently believe that God’s going to care for us. We didn’t know how God was going to do it, but we have this amazing history of God coming through and we have rehearsed that with our kids.

We have a rock, a physical rock, where we’ve written words that remind us of ways that God has come through, our ebenezer, if you will. We were able to say, “We know that we will be okay and it is okay for you to go home when it’s time. We don’t want you to die. We want you as long as we absolutely can.” Helping him walk that red carpet really became a theme for us.

In fact, I have a cousin who mailed me a red carpet runner and that was really special, and I did. I had a flash forward moment where I could see myself on a stage talking about this with a red carpet there. Actually, the name of the company that I founded is Walk the Red, just helping people approach death with a different perspective. Not that when you think about legacy and you think about preparation for that, that it makes it come any sooner, but being willing to say, “My time is finite. I want to milk it for all I can, and when it is time to go, I’m okay to go.”

If someone were to work with you, how would they contact you?

I have a website, walkthered.com and there’s a place there that they can just book a call, just a Zoom call where I can get to know them, hear their story, how I can come alongside them and support them.

Thank you. Working with you, what are some things that people could expect to accomplish or what is your coaching style?

I like to listen to where they are, what are their goals. Everyone has a different take on this. Everyone’s in a different place in their relationship with the Lord. That’s going to be something that’s going to definitely flavor and guide each person’s path. I definitely have some things that I like to share, question and answer and giving activities and things for people to work on and some tangible ways for them to spend time with their families. Also, finding out what’s important to them as they consider leaving a legacy, as they consider preparation for what’s about to come. I think it’s often a big point of fear that we can have when we think about, “I don’t want to be a widow.”

I didn’t want to be a widow at all and yet I have found that widowhood isn’t as horrific as I feared because the Lord is here. The Lord is here and he’s holding me. One thing I learned back in 2006, I think, I had a pregnancy that ended early. We were living overseas and I had to have a DNC and they were going to try and fly me out of the country to have this surgery done, but I didn’t have my passport with me. We were out traveling.

There was no way for me to, to get my passport in time to get out of the country to have this in a safe hospital environment. I ended up having this surgery in this antiquated hospital. I remember them asking me, “Did you eat breakfast?” I was like, “Yeah.” They were like, “Okay, then we can’t give you any anesthesia.” I was awake for this surgery.

I remember just being in that moment and it was horrific. Yet, it was carried. I was carried by the Holy Spirit. It was like he was my number. Had someone told me in advance, “Amy, you’re going to have to have a surgery alone,” because my husband wasn’t able to be with me. “You’re going to have a surgery in East Asia and an antiquated hospital with people that don’t speak your language and you’re going to be wide awake for it,” I would’ve absolutely panicked. I would’ve spent so much time worrying about that.

However, the Lord showed me through that experience that I don’t know how he’s going to show up. I don’t know. I can’t anticipate the gifts that the Lord is going to give me in the moment. I have it over there that his mercies are new every morning. His mercies for each day, he knows what we’re going to be experiencing that day.

His mercies are specific and unique and crafted just for me. I don’t know what those are going to be. There were definitely times I remember laying in bed, touching my husband’s back, feeling to see, “Okay, are you still breathing? Yes.” I was so tempted to worry about what it was going to be like, how is it going to be when I’m alone? I remembered that experience. I was like, “No, I don’t know how the Lord’s going to show up.” It was a discipline of my mind to not worry, but I think I have been pleasantly surprised that widowhood is not as terrifying as what I feared because God is here and he is so good.

Advice For Navigating Widowhood & Rebuilding Life

Amy, if you were to talk to yourself knowing everything you know now and would’ve talked to Amy the day after Brian passed away, what would you tell her?

Hang on. Things get better and everything that you have been saying is true. There is good and you’re going to make it.

When you think of the impact that you want to continue to share, what would that look like in the future? How would it evolve?

I would love to see other people having this same boldness in the face of death and just really laying hold of these promises that God gives us and say, “God says that I’m going to believe it and I’m going to take it to the bank,” because I got nothing else. I would love to have a whole army of people saying that and that we could impact the world, that people could see there’s a different way, there’s a way for us to live in great joy and abundance and we are not people without hope.

I am so grateful for you taking time out of your busy day to have this conversation and being willing to have this very organic conversation. Do you have any questions of me? I try to give opportunity to flip the script since a lot of questions have been asked or could be something, put you in the host seat for a second.

The Journey Of Repartnering After Loss

I love that you have remarried someone that just absolutely gives you joy and delight. How did you know when it was time?

I was visiting with a friend that had been single their entire life. I remember I would put something down and they would clean it or I put something, they would move it. I was like, “At what point would I be so ingrained in my own space that I wouldn’t be comfortable to share that space with someone else?” I began praying, saying, “God, is this something you want me to do? Do I have space to love someone else?”

My late husband and I had been together for 32 years. Thirty-two years of living your life with someone, raising children, being in the military, traveling the world together. My husband was amazing. I knew the idea of re-partnering wasn’t about replacing my husband. It was the idea was I willing and open and available to organically learn another man to give my heart to them to trust.

How is that going to work after being with someone for 32 years? In my mind I thought it would be more like a friendship that we would get along. To my amazement, this version of my life, like anything else, improves. I’m a better woman. I’m a better wife because of the relationship I have with my late husband. The relationship that I have with chapter two, as we call it in the widow community, is even more amazing because I’ve learned I’m not that eighteen-year-old girl that Mark met in the army.

I was this 50-plus girl. My expectations, my desires, my ability to articulate what I expect from someone has improved, increased, expanded from having something good. I realized for me, I either would have something better or I would be okay with not being in a marriage because I did not want to have less than just for the sake of having to be with someone.

God had better for me if he was going to have something for me. The first date that Fred and I met for coffee, I gave him a hug and it instantly felt like home. I was like, “How is this even possible?” It actually took me back and we sat there and talked for 2 or 3 hours, maybe 4. That is a place that we go back to every year for our anniversary and have dinner at that same space.

It has been so easy. It has been amazingly just so organic, the way we fit together. During COVID, churches were shut down and we had communion for the first time together. I remember standing back-to-back, holding our elements and praying. Praying individually and collectively as our church is going online and taking our communion elements and feeling so connected to him and just the way that we have continued to live.

It is possible to re-partner and to have something even more amazing. I know a lot of times people say, “No one will ever be like my late husband.” Absolutely true. That’s impossible. We’re not looking for clones. We’re looking for someone that would be my companion in this version of my life, where I am now. Being a widow has changed me forever.

Sometimes people say, “You’re not a widow anymore because you remarried.” Did Mark come back from the grave? If he still didn’t, I’m forever his widow. That has changed me in a way that I can sometimes never articulate to the depths of my soul. As you said, making the most of the life that I have, I’m going to leave here as an empty vessel. I am going for everything because the opportunity to further my husband’s legacy, to leave impact upon this world that we are not alone in this journey, is something that God has called me to do. I can relate to that.

Out of anyone I’ve ever heard, I think your story has given me great hope that my husband spent a lot of time praying with me for my second husband, which was really shocking to me. Just the amount of love that it took for him to do that. I love the picture that you have shared with us about how that re-partnering is a even better thing and it doesn’t replace, and it doesn’t remove your widowhood title, but it just increases the beauty of who you are. It sounds like Fred is an amazing man.

Widows As A Source Of Wisdom & Strength

He is. I want to share something after you just mentioned that about Brian praying. There is a sense of peace that I received by my husband telling me if he ever left this world, he wanted me to continue loving. He wanted me to re-partner. He wanted me to continue living my life. Oftentimes, people struggle with, “We never had that conversation. I don’t want to feel like I’m doing something wrong. I want to re-partner, but I feel like I’m violating the marriage that I had with my husband.”

Allow me to share this. Your marriage vows were most likely until death to you part. You fulfilled the promise that you made to your spouse. If you’re still struggling, I would invite you to write a letter to your late spouse telling them about your desires to want to date, to possibly re-partner. Let that letter sit wherever you may.

When the time is right, maybe a week or two days later, sit down in that same space, but move the paper to a different position, a different chair if you left it on a table and write what you would know your spouse would respond to you. You knew them long enough to know that they would want for you. Write that letter.

That oftentimes can provide the closure and the ability to move forward to feel like that conversation’s been had because it’s something that’s tethering you and making it impossible for you to move forward. Let me be clear, re-partnering does not solve the grief journey. That grief and that pain continues in a different way depending on how you actively participate in your own grief will determine that. It does not diminish. I still have my late husband’s last name and I’ll share this story.

When it was about a month or two before we were getting married and one of my coworkers said, “When are you changing your name?” I was like, “Change my name? That’s not something I ever planned on doing,” but I was like, “This could be a game changer for Fred. I need to have this conversation.” I was thinking it would go okay but I was a little nervous thinking like, “How is this going to really happen?” We were out eating and I said, “What do you think about changing names?” He looked at me, he said like, “You change your last name? Your children wouldn’t have a parent in this world with the same last name.” I was like, “This man gets me. He knows what’s important.”

The next thing he said, he could have left without this. He goes, “Besides, you kind of old to be changing your name. That’s going to be complicated.” I’m like, “Nobody asked you that. You could have stayed with Option A. Option B never needed to be said,” but he did. It just gave me further confirmation upon confirmation. I later learned in our dating that his middle name is Mark. There were just so many things that God just showed me that this was the right man for me. We dated for three years and we celebrated our third wedding anniversary.

I remember in the very beginning weeping that Brian was gone and my marriage was broken and my mom spoke to me and she said, “Amy, your marriage isn’t broken. You completed your marriage.” That healed my heart so much. It’s exactly what you said. Our vows were until death do us apart. To say I completed my marriage, that has really been something I’ve hung on to.

Yes, I feel like widows should be celebrated. We completed. We did something that some people yearn to do. We did a whole dang on thing. That is amazing. It is something that I feel like younger women that are getting married should be at the feet of widows understanding, “How do you complete this? How do you stay in something sometimes when it’s difficult? How do you pray through difficult moments? How do you encourage your spouse?”

How, in 2025, do you operate maybe outside your home and submit to your husband being the head of your household? How do you respect your husband? How does your husband love you like Christ loved the church? How does that really, not just those words, but what does that look like on an everyday experience in 2025? There is a lot of wisdom to be coming from the widow community.

We tend to think of the widow community as needy and as full of grief, but it’s not. We don’t really ascribe wisdom to them. I love that. That’s such a new perspective on that for me. That’s really good.

We’re coaching from that perspective.

Yeah, totally. I am.

Thank you, Amy. I will allow you to close out this conversation. I just want to say one thing first and then I’ll let you close it out. I am so sorry for the person that you have lost that has drove you to this conversation, but I’m glad you found us and I’m glad that you’re here. I know this conversation was value added and I look forward to seeing you next time.

Thank you so much. I would say that my husband is proud of me and how I am using his legacy to carry forth hope and inspiration and that there’s more to life than just getting by. There is an abundant life. I know that. That is bringing him great joy and honoring the life that he lived. Thank you for having me. It’s been a real joy. A real delight.

Thank you. Have a good day.

You, too.

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I want to say thank you for every episode that you have read, every episode you have shared and the comments that you have made. I am so honored to be able to share and support you. I am inviting you to help celebrate my birthday. For the month of May, your celebration is the donation of $5 in the month of May, 5 and 5. See what we’re doing there?

Widowhood Real Talk with Tina is a nonprofit registered 501(c)3, and your donations help us continue the show you can do that by texting Hope For Widowhood to 53555. $5. Every person that’s reading one episode would donate $5. That would help us continue doing the great work and serving the bereaved. We do that by hosting mental health events.

We have a Walk for Love. You help us support our memorial garden, our butterfly release ceremony, a celebration retreat at the end of the year for widows and widowers. You are helping us provide books for people that are newly bereaved, a grief support group, and so much more. Your donation helps us help others. Thank you so much for texting and donating $5 by texting Hope For Widowhood to 53555. Thank you.

Important Links

• Amy Shaw
• Amy Shaw Art
• Support for Christian Spouses and Caregivers Facebook Group

About Amy Shaw

Amy Shaw didn’t expect to become an end of life concierge. But after years of living abroad, having 10 children (4 biological and 6 adopted), Amy and her husband got the news. He had a terminal illness. Rather than bemoan a diagnosis, Amy and Brian chose to celebrate his life. This is what inspired her Walk the Red program which equips the diagnosed and their caregivers with a powerful protocol to help them end well. Amy says, “We’re actually all on the red carpet. We all get to decide how we live and how we die.” In addition to being a John Maxwell certified speaker, Amy is a modern impressionist artist who often combines her artistic abilities with her keynotes and workshops.