A Surprise Find After Love Lost

Photogrief / Photogrief : Denise Lara Mangalino



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This essay is a part of WYG's PhotoGrief project. The goal of the PhotoGrief project is to create a space where people can explore and express their grief through pictures. Learn more about the project here.

By Bob Kovach

I lost my wife Meg to cancer about a year and a half ago. 

When she first passed I had the painful task of going through her personal belongings.  I never had a reason to go through her purse before but I had to find the usual things you need to find when filing paperwork.  I did what I had to do and put it back in a drawer where it sat for more than a year. 

For some reason last week I went through it again.  This time I carefully looked at the items inside.  Her sunglasses,  lipstick case and wallet.  She had a small change purse and inside I found a surprise.  Meg didn’t wear much jewelry.  Just her wedding ring and occasionally earrings. 

When we would go to lunch I would take the paper cover from a beverage straw and twist it and then make it into a ring.  She would jokingly wear it around for the rest of the day.  Well inside her change purse I found a handful of those paper rings I made her and she saved over the years. 

Just a little gesture of love she must have felt worth keeping.

We invite you to share your experiences, questions, and resource suggestions with the WYG community in the discussion section below.

We invite you to share your experiences, questions, and resource suggestions with the WYG community in the discussion section below.

We wrote a book!

After writing online articles for What’s Your Grief
for over a decade, we finally wrote a tangible,
real-life book!

After writing online articles for What’s Your Grief for over a decade, we finally wrote a tangible, real-life book!

What’s Your Grief? Lists to Help you Through Any Loss is for people experiencing any type of loss. This book discusses some of the most common grief experiences and breaks down psychological concepts to help you understand your thoughts and emotions. It also shares useful coping tools, and helps the reader reflect on their unique relationship with grief and loss.

You can find What’s Your Grief? Lists to Help you Through Any Loss wherever you buy books:

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