The Tough Widow
This story is from our Stories from the Frontlines of Clutter series where we take you behind the scenes on a typical day at Life Easier. Click here to read more.
The woman I worked for today lost her husband to COVID in August.
They had met when she was just 13 and crossed paths again when she was slightly older. They didn’t date back then. Life happened and they married other people. Years later after her first husband died she reached out to him on Facebook and sadly, his wife had passed too.
They rekindled their connection and he moved from Florida to Charlotte to be with her. He adopted her live-in grandchild as his own. Six years into their blissful marriage, he passed away suddenly. She will forever regret not telling him how she felt about him back then.
Today I got to be with her as she took her first steps toward getting control of her life. Over 4.5 hours of sifting through years of financial paperwork and historical life records. Lots of tears and hugs as we rolled down her memory lane.
For a 60 year old widow, she was a toughie ?. No breaks and almost no water. No snacks despite being surrounded by Girl Scout cookies. (She’s a troop leader.) We stood the entire time moving in sync as I prepped the papers prior to her review and dealt with the aftermath of her decisions.
By 4:30, my 3 hour slot was up – Did she want to stop? No! She was in the zone! We worked until 6 pm tonight.
She said as she sipped her vodka cocktail, her reward for a hard afternoon, “Can you come back Tuesday?”
Absolutely.
