How we met: "We both mourned our spouses and juggled the kids and the demands of the job"
When Joe lost his wife, Debbie, to breast cancer in July 2012, he was devastated. “The earth moved under my feet. As a family, we only realized the extent of the devastation years later,” he says. "It's not something you can figure out when you go through it." At the time, he was living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his two children, ages 9 and 12. To cope with the pain and difficulties of his new life, he turned to blogging. "I would sit at my computer and the words would just come out. I don't know why I started, I just needed an outlet and it was cathartic."
Shortly after he started writing, his blog was recommended to Kim, whose husband, Jack, had just died of a brain tumor. "I was going through the exact same thing, raising two kids and juggling the demands of the job," she says. Grieving was a big topic on the blog, but Joe also touched on other issues, such as managing milestones, like the kids' first day back at school. “That was the position that really struck me. When the kids were going back to school, I would see these forms where my husband was listed next to me. It was really difficult.”
One day while Kim was visiting Jack at the cemetery, she noticed that Debbie was buried next to him. "We had never met but I recognized his last name on the blog," she says. In late September, she emailed Joe thanking him for the posts he was sharing. "She had signed it saying her husband was buried next to my wife," explains Joe. "I felt like I had been struck by lightning."
A few weeks later, they met in person at a local event of support for young widowers. They formed a friendship, meeting regularly in a group. "I was passionate about running at the time and Joe came to run with me and my friends," says Kim. In November, they so nt went out for coffee after walking 5,000 meters and ended up chatting for hours. spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-1sioudk">
When Joe lost his wife, Debbie, to breast cancer in July 2012, he was devastated. “The earth moved under my feet. As a family, we only realized the extent of the devastation years later,” he says. "It's not something you can figure out when you go through it." At the time, he was living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his two children, ages 9 and 12. To cope with the pain and difficulties of his new life, he turned to blogging. "I would sit at my computer and the words would just come out. I don't know why I started, I just needed an outlet and it was cathartic."
Shortly after he started writing, his blog was recommended to Kim, whose husband, Jack, had just died of a brain tumor. "I was going through the exact same thing, raising two kids and juggling the demands of the job," she says. Grieving was a big topic on the blog, but Joe also touched on other issues, such as managing milestones, like the kids' first day back at school. “That was the position that really struck me. When the kids were going back to school, I would see these forms where my husband was listed next to me. It was really difficult.”
One day while Kim was visiting Jack at the cemetery, she noticed that Debbie was buried next to him. "We had never met but I recognized his last name on the blog," she says. In late September, she emailed Joe thanking him for the posts he was sharing. "She had signed it saying her husband was buried next to my wife," explains Joe. "I felt like I had been struck by lightning."
A few weeks later, they met in person at a local event of support for young widowers. They formed a friendship, meeting regularly in a group. "I was passionate about running at the time and Joe came to run with me and my friends," says Kim. In November, they so nt went out for coffee after walking 5,000 meters and ended up chatting for hours. spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-1sioudk">
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