Although the title of this work would indicate that the primary audience would be widows, I find these personal reflections to be broader in scope. Anyone dealing with significant loss -- be it of a married partner, a friend or close associate, even a job, would benefit from a reflective reading of this text. And, as the author indicates, it is by walking through and not around our grief that we can grow and move on in life. Failure to do so can lead to being "stuck" in one place for five, ten, fifty years. --Bishop Robert F. Morneau in the Foreword to the book.

Roberta Charneski's A Catholic Approach to Widowhood meditates on the many aspects of grief that touch the painful moments leading to the death of a loved one. That may be a sudden tragic one or the prolonged agony that can cause lover and beloved to intensify their affection for one another. As one lady put it, "I had done everything for my mother that I could before she died. I spent my vacations with her in her declining years. I remembered her love for me and wanted to nourish her with warmth and affection." But Roberta Charneski goes much further by charting the course of grief that occurs after death. She explores her own sorrows caused by the sudden loss of her teenaged son as well as her daughter's unexpected widowhood. But above all she identifies with the grief of our Blessed Mother Mary who mourned the death of Joseph and then walked with what we might compare to the Stations of the Cross with her son, Jesus. Roberta's success in making these links with Mary reflects her own contemplative spirit. Only a loving faith can deal with this mystery and this is the secret of this moving book. --Rev. Alfred McBride, O.Praem. in the Preface.