I never thought I would be the kind of woman to sit down and write something like this. For most of my life, I was content just living quietly, caring for my family, and trusting that tomorrow would look much like today. But life has a way of breaking even the strongest hearts, and when my husband passed away, I felt like everything I had built for decades crumbled overnight it was hard finding faith again.
We had been married for over forty years. He was my best friend, my partner in everything, the one person who knew me better than I knew myself.
And then, suddenly, he was gone. The house that once echoed with laughter and simple daily conversations became unbearably silent. I would wake up in the middle of the night and instinctively reach across the bed, only to find cold sheets where he used to be.
People often talk about grief, but until you live through it, you cannot understand the way it reshapes every corner of your life. It wasn't just the big moments I missed, but the small ones.
The sound of his keys on the kitchen table. The way he always hummed while making coffee. Even the arguments we sometimes had seemed precious in hindsight. When those things were gone, it felt like someone had ripped the floor out from under me, and I was falling into a place I couldn't climb out of.
I prayed, begged God for strength, for comfort, for something to fill the hollow space in my chest. But the prayers felt like they bounced off the ceiling and came crashing back down.
I went to church and tried to worship, but I couldn't stop watching the couples sitting together, holding hands, whispering to each other. I felt like an outsider in a place that used to feel like home.
That is when the doubt crept in. I began to wonder if I had lost not only my husband, but my faith. For months, I carried that emptiness like a weight I couldn't put down.
My children came to visit, my grandchildren filled the living room with joy, but when the door closed and I was alone again, the silence swallowed me whole.
I remember one night vividly. I was sitting at my kitchen table staring at a cup of tea that had long gone cold. The house was quiet, and I felt like a ghost in my own life.
It was then that I realized I wasn't just grieving my husband. I was grieving myself. The woman who laughed easily, who prayed with conviction, who trusted in God's plan -- she was gone too.
Something inside me whispered that I couldn't go on like this. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I knew I needed help. That was the beginning of my journey of finding faith again, and it led me to something called Path of Faith.
I remember the day I received my reflection. I sat down at the kitchen table, opened it, and began to read. Line after line felt like it was written about me, almost as if it had foretold my life.
It spoke to the very things I had been struggling with in silence. I couldn't hold back the tears because it felt like God was speaking directly through those words.
For the first time in so long, something reached me. The words touched the ache I carried. They reminded me that I had not been abandoned, even if I had convinced myself otherwise.
It felt as if someone had placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and whispered, "You are not alone." I cannot explain it any other way except to say it felt like God was speaking directly to me, telling me that even in my pain, He had been there all along.
From that moment on, something in me began to heal. The emptiness didn't vanish overnight, but I no longer felt like I was drowning in it.
I started smiling again, even laughing at times. I found myself praying differently, not as a desperate plea, but as a conversation with a Father who had never left me.
I didn't get my husband back, but I did find something greater. I found myself again. I found my faith again.
And if you feel lost, as I once did, Path of Faith is where God reminded me that I was never truly alone.