Birmingham Author Helps Other Widows Navigate Grief

Abandoned as a newborn on the streets in South Korea and robbed by cancer of two of the people closest to her, Birmingham author Kristin Meekhof recalls her life experiences in hopes they will help others in a newly published book, “A Widow’s Guide to Healing.”

Meekhof was 5 when her adoptive father died, and 33 when her husband died.

“Obviously, my life has been filled with some big losses,” Meekhof told The Birmingham Eccentric/Hometownlife.com. “But I’m very grateful in many ways ... the marriage I had was very strong. My husband accepted his diagnosis — rather than say, ‘Why me?’ he said, ‘Why not me?’ ”

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Meekhof is grateful she had time to say goodbye to her love. Many of the widows she interviewed for the book never had that chance, she said.

She married Roy DeBoer, a U.S. Army veteran and teacher, in 2003. Four years later. he died, just weeks after he was diagnosed with advanced adrenal cancer.

Meekhof spent 3½ years traveling around the world and interviewing widows of all ages and backgrounds for her book, including a woman from Boston whose husband died in the 9/11 terror attacks, women who lost their husbands to drug addiction and suicide, and women in Kenya living on less than a dollar a day after the deaths of their husbands.

The book, released Nov. 3 on Amazon, includes a cover blurb from Dr. Deepak Chopra who wrote of the book: “ A very valuable and practical guide … both inspiring and courageous.”

Inside, Maria Shriver recommended the book “for all of us who must deal with grief.”

“A Widow’s Guide to Healing” is an “inspiring and insightful book to help guide widows through their grief,” Shriver wrote.

To order the book, go here.

To read the rest of Meekhof’s story, including her adoption journey, go to Hometownlife.com.

» Photo via KristinMeekhof.com