Phyllis Dewey

Her Turn Phyllis Dewey

In 2016 her husband was injured while on his job. Over the next three years he underwent a neck surgery, a wide variety of therapies and treatments. Nothing helped ease the pain and numbness. In 2019 he went in for another neck surgery to replace the discs that had been replaced during his 2017 surgery. "Surgery went well, he is in recovery," is the word she received over the phone from the surgeon while in the waiting room of the hospital. Two days later her husband coded and although they were able to bring him back he was never responsive again. Other complications and set backs occurred over the next couple of weeks. Then the doctors told her she had a decision to make. It was the hardest decision she and her family had to make. They were all in agreement with what he would have wanted and with his family by his side, holding his hands, he died early on a Saturday afternoon. Her life changed forever at that moment. As a widow she had many decisions to make. A life to continue living, or not. She could have gotten lost in her own isolation. She could have drowned in her own sorrow and become stuck in the stages of grief. Instead, this is her story of how she took this new way of life and living by the horns and faced each day with a positive attitude. This is her story of moving forward through grief and how she progressed to find happiness, smiles and laughter within her first year. Her determination, the goals she set, her faith kept her going. In part two she details ways women, (and men) can also get through this tragedy that nearly everyone faces at some point in their lives. She offers ideas of how couples can prepare each other for the 'til Death do us part', of the wedding vows. While she admits in this book there is no way to prepare for the emotions one feels at that time in their life, she gives others hope and encouragement to be able to keep going and move forward.