Confessions of a Mediocre Widow by Catherine Tidd

Author:Catherine Tidd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2013-10-28T16:00:00+00:00

Dear Peggy,

I just wanted you to know that you should be extremely proud of Ron. I was so touched that he called last night to check on how I was doing and I’ve come to realize that, for a man, that takes more courage than going into battle.

Sincerely,

Catherine

I could never understand why the men avoided me so much. I guess they were worried that I could have a complete emotional breakdown in front of them at any moment. Like the top could blow on Mount Widow without warning and they were terrified of it happening in their presence. I should have explained to them from the beginning that the mountain would stay dormant unless it was fed copious amounts of chardonnay. Then eruption was imminent.

Now that I was alone, I needed to do things like trouble-shoot my plumbing and find out where to get the best deal on tires. Being the mom and the dad meant that I had to broaden my interests past what was in People magazine and into deeper subjects…like what was in Consumer Reports. I had no idea how to fix my garbage disposal, what fertilizer to use on my grass, and what the optimum temperature was to grill a steak. And even though my female friends were great at a lot of things, I needed those friendships with the men in their lives.

Because I had no man in mine.

It got to the point where I thought enough was enough. If I wanted my friendships to survive (because, after all, I had been friends with their husbands, too), I had to prove to them that they could.

It was obvious that I couldn’t wait for everyone else to make this okay. It would be up to me. And that made sense. I mean, for all they knew, it could be really painful for me to be around other couples when I no longer had my better half. And it was. It was incredibly painful. But my instinct told me that I needed to get used to it and the longer I waited to get out there socially, the more painful it would be to try.

The first dinner party I put together was with my old college roommates and their husbands. I needed to have a group that would completely understand and not judge if, in the middle of the conversation, I had to excuse myself to go to my room and be alone for a moment—and they were the perfect choice. I set my dining-room table with five places instead of the usual six. I made gumbo, bought wine, and put together an appetizer. And do you know what happened?

It was weird.

Of course it was! It wasn’t normal! And it wasn’t anyone’s fault…that was just the phase we were all in. They were still trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about and what I didn’t. I was still trying to test out conversation starters that wouldn’t make everything come to a crashing halt. But in the middle of that weird was a little bit of fun.

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