I discovered Widow.ie in August 2009, when I was three years widowed. Typing "I am a widow" into a google search engine was silent cry – "I am a widow and I feel so alone". I expected the usual response from google "do you mean window?" Well I felt shattered – like broken glass – so perhaps google had the right idea. Widow.ie appearing on my screen was a surprise and I was eager to follow the lead. It led me to a world of people just like me, women and men who had lost their life partner through death. My introduction post was not asking for sympathy just satisfying a need to walk in company for a while until I figured out the next part of this strange new existence. In Widow.ie I found just what I was looking for – ordinary people facing this extra-ordinary challenge of saying goodbye to life shared as a couple and opening themselves to a new future as single people. I found a wonderful pool of knowledge and companionship. I had found the group that no one wants to join but was glad to find.

There are some very nice compassionate and caring people on this site and I hope this site brings you a bit of comfort as it has me.

What's great about being a member is that we can talk openly at any time of the day or night. Recognizing the commonality of our experiences is reassuring. The reality of our lives has changed drastically. We might be cast into an extreme state of confusion and hurt by the evaporation of life as we know it, but we are not alone.

I just wanted to say that you have come to the best place. 3 Days here and I feel like I've found a safe haven somewhere to come to.

You've come to the right place. I'm only here a short while myself and I've found this site a great support. The others are all great people who are at different stages

Widowhood is a unique pain. It's totally unlike any other bereavements; the little world you and he inhabited is whipped away in an instant, leaving you alone, bewildered, frightened, angry, confused, guilty and a thousand other things that you struggle daily to make sense of. Nobody, except those who have lost their partner, knows fully the intense loneliness of widowhood. Nobody, except those who have lost their partner knows how utterly your hopes and dreams for the future are shattered, how your personality changes, and how that which defines you (John's wife, Mary's husband) is taken away in a second. Nobody, except those who have lost their partner knows how difficult it is to sleep in an empty bed or attend a family wedding alone. On Widow.ie, everyone knows how it feels. There are people on this site at every stage of bereavement; people who are still reeling in the early stages and people who have had years of living with their loss. The 'older hands' are able to help the newly bereaved see that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that life can be good again; and they help them through every stage they go through, because they've been there too.