A serious subject dealt with a lot of humor. Self-discovery after loss and it's never too late to become a writer.
Although written as a memoir, this book has helped widowed people by making them feel less alone. It represents six years of writing as the author progresses from the grief of losing her husband to eventually joining online dating. A grand mix of poignancy and humor with easy-to-read,stand alone short memoir stories that can be enjoyed sequence if so desired. The author's photo illustrations are purposely blurred to give the illusion of days gone by. A great gift for anyone but especially for someone who has lost a partner.
Excerpt
After suffering a loss, surviving and thriving are imperative for recovery and should be celebrated. Writing affirmed that I was alive and that my experiences were important.
-- Betty Auchard
Professional Reviews
Dancing in My Nightgown: The Rhythms of Widowhood
Title: Dancing in My Nightgown: The Rhythms of Widowhood, by Betty Auchard
ISBN: 139781932173758, Stephens Press, LLC
About the author: Betty Auchard was a retired art teacher when her husband Denny died. For her, writing became a way to heal, eventually taking on a life of its own. Her stories have been published in Chocolate for a Woman’s Soul series and the San Jose Mercury News and other periodicals. In addition to writing full time, she presents the stories from this book to audiences in California’s Bay Area and beyond. She still lives happily within driving distance of her four children and eleven grandchildren.
From the dust jacket: 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 know how to put gas in her car. She was not freeway literate, nor had she ever used a computer. And she had never paid the bills by herself.
Betty’s road to self-sufficiency is filled with laughter, creativity, connection, and transformation—and tears, self-doubt, and lonely nights. Through it all, Betty lands on her feet, ready for whatever comes next. The last page doesn’t feel like an ending at all because, really it’s just a beginning.
Review: Inspiring, existentially hopeful and worth reading a second time. This book succeeds on several levels: it offers hope to widows and widowers, it is inspiring to would-be writers demonstrating that it’s never too late to start a writing career and it is an example of writing so in touch with the reader that it reminds me of the personalizing prose of A River Runs Through It. Although there are no parallels, Betty Auchard’s writing will strike you as that of a letter from a relative.
Auchard’s grief, and the bittersweet revelations she experiences as she progresses through widowhood, are both sad and humorous. She has the rare talent of being able to engage us in experiencing her loss as our loss and her triumph as ours. The demographics for this book are such that it will likely be in greater demand ten years from now than it is today.
Discussion: What effect will the aging baby-boom generation have on the way we view the loss of a spouse?
Not just for Widows!
By Nan Robin (Santa Rosa, CA, USA) -
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
By John G. Watson (Port Perry, Ontario, Canada)
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.
(Richard M. Feldman) Ever since I was a young boy, the only thing I wanted to be was a cowboy. I wanted to own and work on a real ranch, with cattle and horses. Especially horses.
While I never became a cowboy, considering everything I have done
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