Gay Widowers

A recent gay widower may find that once the shock and initial confusion of losing his partner is overcome, there are still many hard, lonely, and overwhelming stages of grief to be worked through. Often, the bereaved feels isolated, and looking around for comfort, realizes that he doesn't have many resources to turn to, but Gay Widowers: Life After the Death of a Partner is a start. By offering first-person accounts of becoming a widower, this book, the first of its kind, allows others who are about to lose or already have lost a partner to find support, validation, recognition, and fellowship. It also offers bereaved men, psychologists, counselors, and social workers—in a society where the mourning process is generally a heterosexual, social construct—a clinical overview of the psychodynamic issues relevant, and perhaps unique, to their mourning process.

Contents Foreword

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Surviving a Partner's Death Deeply in the Closet
• Do You Have a Partner?
• Postcard from Grief
• Excerpts from a Diary
• No Return
• Tracing Time
• The Merry Widower
• A Dream Is More than a Wish Your Heart Makes
• Trading Places: A Hillside Chat with Don Bachardy
• Going It Alone
• I'm Not Done Yet
• Conclusion: Mental Health Considerations of Gay Widowers
• Index