Dancing in My Nightgown: The Rhythms of Widowhood

by Betty Auchard

Book Overview

Married when she was barely 19, Betty Auchard went straight from her parents' home to her husband's bed. She raised four children, returned to college, taught art in the public school system, and became a grandmother, a published artist, a retiree, and then a widow. When she loses her husband of almost 49 years to cancer, widowhood forces Betty to find out what she can do on her own. She has a lot to learn, having never been single before. She didn't...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932173455
• ISBN13: 9781932173451
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Stephens Press
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

A TRUE COMFORT

This book was a TRUE COMFORT to me now when that is what I need. I feel like Betty and I are the best of friends -- even though we have not met. I recently lost my beloved Ted after 71 years of marriage. My daughter-in-law gave me a copy of Dancing in My Nightgown, and once I started reading it, I could not stop. I have loaned it to my friends. Just what I needed. -- Louella Uber, Carlsbad, CA

Like Chocolate...

The stories in Dancing in My Nightgown: The Rhythms of Widowhood are more than memoir and inspirational. They are surprisingly fun to read. The book is like an exquisite piece of chocolate-I'm taking a small bite at a time for its taste to last and its essence to linger.

Not just for widows!

Betty Auchard, with a sense of down home humor and courageous insight, has written a guidebook to the land of Self Discovery on the journey of loss and grief. These revealing words of wisdom are useful for women in transition at all ages and stages of life. Read and dance with Betty out of the past, out of the pain, into the future.

Compellingly readable !

Betty Auchard's compellingly readable memoir flows as effortlessly as life itself. A gifted storyteller, her reflections help us to ponder our own lives as well. We become aware how quickly our pasts become our presents with each page we turn. A bride at nineteen, Betty shares the experiences and reflections of her bewildering and emotionally painful journey through bereavement after over four decades of a wonderfully happy marriage. Bittersweet, sweetly whimsical and always touchingly candid, her wonderful stories tackle potentially paralyzing emotional issues and make all the sad stops along the way without becoming the least maudlin or self-indulgent. Her storytelling triumphs by not only taking us along as she learns to surmount those times, but describing them so well we feel we're silent soul mates living them with her. We're offered glimpses of how "keeping the faith" with a resilient blend of humour, compassion and hope can enable and empower us to overcome grief with time's passing. And we learn life still awaits us; not merely to be resumed or coped with, but re-discovered and should we choose, re-invented. These stories are a boon to everyone who has dealt or is dealing with profound loss of any sort. They carry hope that despite how bereft or alone, our hearts can and will endure; and that perhaps we have an obligation, for ourselves and the memory of whoever or whatever we've lost, to allow ourselves to learn to live once again.

JUST WON AN AWARD! A MUST READ!!!

Just won an Independent Book Publisher's Award! This book is a must read if you have experienced ANY kind of loss, not just the death of a spouse. Auchard, a former art teacher, started writing as a way to recover from her grief. But grief was not the only thing she had to deal with. Never having to pay the bills or pump her own gas, she suddenly was thrown into tasks that were beyond her comfort zone. When she felt compelled to write, anything within reach did the trick, including napkins at the restaurant or a receipt in her purse. Not ever intending to write a book, she soon realized that writing was a way for her to heal. The stories mark her journey from grief to recovery and eventually, to thriving after the loss of her husband. They are writtten with grace, humor and wit. We can laugh and cry at the same time. It truly gives you hope when hope seems unachievable. Auchard is a wonderful writer and pulls you in and doesn't let go!