There’s a version of my life that still exists in my head: the one where my husband walks through the door, where our son grows up knowing him, where I’m not doing bedtime, bills and grief all at once.

But that version ended suddenly. Unexpectedly. No warning, no time to prepare, no checklist handed to me on what to do next. Just silence and a four-month-old baby who still needed everything from me.

I became a widow before I even fully understood what that word meant.

And here’s the part no one really tells you: especially if you’re in your 30s, there is almost no safety net for us.

We don’t fit the narrative people picture when they think of widowhood. We’re not elderly. We’re not nearing retirement. We’re not in a stage of life where the systems in place are designed to catch us. We are young, in the middle of building our lives, raising babies, growing careers – and then suddenly expected to carry it all alone.

There’s this quiet assumption that........

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