Dimensions
135 x 216 x 24mm
Lucie is 38. She is the mother of a young daughter. And she is a widow. Her husband, Mark, died suddenly at the age of just 37. This book, inspired by her award-winning blog Wife After Death, is the story of her grief, and how she is (and isn't) coming to terms with Mark's death, and bringing up their daughter on her own. On the evening of February 11, 2012, just before Take Me Out was due to start, Lucie Brownlee and her 37-year-old husband Mark went up to bed. Mid-way through intercourse, Mark dropped dead on the pillow beside her. Lucie's candid memoir charts her first two years of widowhood. (Bereavement lore states that the first year is the hardest and subsequent years get progressively easier. She has found this not to be the case.) Her story bears witness to first birthdays, first dates and inappropriate liaisons with a plumber, as well as posers such as, 'Should I really keep those rank, greying boxer shorts with the hole in the crotch that I found at the bottom of the washing basket after He died?' Lucie never loses her sense of humour; for there are laughs to be had in the world of the widow, from encounters with the undertaker, to the thorny issue of what to do with the ashes. But as the two-year anniversary approaches, is there hope for a future without Mark? This book is a roller-coaster ride through the highs and lows of negotiating the 'new normal' and addresses the warty underbelly of widowhood; the drinking, the recklessness, and the feelings of inadequacy as a single mother to a young child.
