I Am Widow, Hear Me Roar: Confessions of a Surviving Spouse

“Please, God, not again.”These were the first words that spewed from her mouth when JoAnn found herself at the death bed of her 49-year old husband. Subsequently, it was also a fitting sentiment one month later when her toilet broke for the second time since his funeral. She had hoped the flimsy flapper would have at least lasted until her husband’s tombstone was purchased. Widowhood is not for sissies.After her son drowned on the shore of her lake home, JoAnn thought nothing could touch her so deeply. But, eleven years later, she is challenged with another transformation and another era of looking for God in the clouds of the sunset. After finding herself suddenly widowed at the age of 47, JoAnn revisits the familiar aspects of her bereavement. She has definitely looked through these clouds before. I Am Widow, Hear Me Roar not only narrates a widow’s grief journey with the same reflective manner as JoAnn’s first award-winning memoir, When Bluebirds Fly, but also cleverly surprises the reader with the amusing dilemmas that a single mother and middle-aged woman often confronts: Raising a teenage boy, dating, learning the basics of house repairs, facing the holidays, making new friendships, and revisiting faith.