Widow's Walk: A Personal Journey Through Loss, Fear, Anger and Love - Paperback

by Pamela Cuming (Author)

Pamela Cuming is thirty-four years old when her husband dies of a heart attack. With Bill's death, she loses not only a husband and best friend but her business partner as well. She must rebuild her life, raise two children, and run the consulting firm she and Bill once co-managed. But first she must face the fact that she is a widow. To her credit, Pamela Cuming is a take-charge kind of woman. However, in reality, she rides an emotional roller coaster-one moment soaring with pleasure over her own independence and insight; the next moment plunging into terror over her loss and feelings of inadequacy. Pamela Cuming traces her first year's journey through the fears and frustrations of widowhood; her own angry despair; her children's grief; and the necessity of coping with all the chores her husband once handled-getting the car fixed, painting the house, taking over the adminsitrative end of their business. She speaks about an anxiety she cannot always control, the fear of sleeping in "their" bed, the depression of holidays and anniversaries, and the overwhelming sense of being alone. Yet somewhow she does begin to set things right and to redefine her personal boundaries. At the end of the first year without her husband, Pamela Cuming is a significantly different person. Her values and priorities have been aired and reorganized, and her individuality has been acknowledged and remains intact. Widow's Walk is a bold, brave, and candid admission of bereavement, weakness, and ultimately, strangth. It tells a story that is as relevant to widows and widowers today as it was in 1979 when she experienced her loss. In some respects, that was a very different time. There were smoking sections in airplanes, often separated from the non-smoking sections by only an aisle. It was customary to order cocktails at lunch. There were no cellphones. Personal computers were still on the drawing board. She wrote Widow's Walk on a Smith Corona typewriter. It was a different time, and yet the emotions she felt back then when her husband's heart stopped beating were the same as any widow or widower feels today. Then and now, widowhood feels like walking through the land of the shadows. The world is blurry. Normal conversation about mundane subjects is strained and tedious. Time moves slowly. The days are endless and the nights are even longer. You struggle to reach through the shadows and grasp something real, but there is nothing there. Emerging from the land of the shadows is the awful challenge that all widows and widowers face. Widow's Walk sheds light on how to navigate that dark path. The first edition of Widow's Walk was published in 1981. The second edition includes a preface and an epilogue, and has been edited to make the book more readable.

Author Biography

Pamela Cuming wrote the first edition of Widow's Walk shen she was thirty-four-years old. As the second edition is released, she has just celebrated her seventy-second birthday. During the intervening years, she has continued to eagerly seize new opportunities and bravely confront the obstacles that life has put in her way. She embraces Helen Keller's belief, "Life is an adventure or nothing at all." She has enjoyed a multifaceted career, advising CEO's of American corporations, Wall Street financiers, directors of non-profits and medical practitioners on the human and organizational dynamics affecting the health of their enterprises. She published two books on leadership and the use and abuse of power. Now, along with her peers, she is facing a new set of challenges as she learns to deal with emerging health problems and other demands presented by an aging body. Contemplating the human condition and confronting her own mortality, Pam believes the last part of life can still be a great adventure. This belief renders her latest book, The Hourglass: Life as an Aging Mortal an uplifting account of the possibilities inherent in growing old. Pam lives with her husband on a mountaintop in the Pacific Northwest. She has two daughters and four grandsons. For more information about the author or her books, visit her website: www.pamcuming.com. Pam is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA)(R) .