Why “JoyReturns?”

If you are new to the site welcome.  Here is why “JoyReturns”.

Why?

My husband Joe unexpectedly passed away 5 years ago (March 2008)  and I wanted to learn how to recover from grief.

Most blogs I found were:

• Depressing looking.
• Did not encourage me to stick around and further explore their site.
• Gave all the nitty-gritty details of the deceased illness, accident and passing. (TMI)

Support Groups Role

The church I attend runs Church Initiative’s Griefshare program.  I was a participant for a year when I was asked to become a co-facilitator.  That was 2 years ago.

The program’s tagline is “From Mourning to Joy”. It is because of that tagline that I decided to incorporate joy into my blog’s title.

Visitors

I want visitors to see a cheery, optimistic and welcoming site.  Through my adventures hopefully they will see joy does return to their lives and/or the lives of their loved one.

If a visitor is not grieving than hopefully my experiences will educate them what a grief journey is like, how to help widows, (hint – see the “Just Be There” tab) and not to be scared of us widows.

My Life

Joy returned to my life and it will to yours or your friend or loved ones.  It takes time and requires a lot of patience.

God has used widowhood and unemployment as a learning and growing experience which has increased my capacity to give and receive love, comfort and joy.