THE FRIENDS

The New Chapters website is intended to serve as a gathering place to tell and read real life stories of love, loss and what happens next to offer insight and a pathway of hope. Just as I was immediately surrounded and supported by friends at the passing of my husband, Brady, so too did they join me in making this project happen. I offer my heartfelt thanks to these friends.

  • TOM JELNECK – Brain stormer, website creator/optimizer and sarcastic eye-roller.

  • JILL SHARGAA – The artist (and college roommate) who, from the get-go, understood my heart and this new chapter.

  • PETER KING – The “Big Deal” contributing writer and unwavering champion of the idea of all this.

  • ANDREW SNYDER – The creative eye and wise(guy) counselor.

  • LYNN OSGOOD AND SARA AU – My editorial spirit animals.

  • SHARON MCBREEN - Ever the wordsmith and friend.

  • EACH and every one of you who supported this initiative from the start and encouraged those with loss to tell me their stories.

  • THE LOVE POSSE who, as always, without hesitation said, “JUST DO IT, JUST DO IT!”

  • But most especially, to EACH SURVIVING SPOUSE who placed their trust in me to listen, hear and understand their sorrow and tell their love story with integrity and respect.

The Stories

Featured
Kimberly and Rasheed
Kimberly and Rasheed

Rasheed Wiggins was a man in love. After seven years into his relationship with Kimberly Holmes, he decided to make up for lost time and ask Kimberly to marry him.

They had known each other casually as students at Duke University but went their separate ways after graduation. Kimberly chased a career in television news while Rasheed pursued a business executive path and entrepreneurship. Both were driven.

Karen and Steve
Karen and Steve

About 11 p.m. the couple was startled by what sounded like fireworks outside the front of their home. Karen reached the front room before Steve as the two tried to identify the source of the sounds. “All of a sudden, the entire door blew in,” she recalls. “I saw a very tall figure with gray hair who just started shooting.”

Todd and Joan
Todd and Joan

Life really is about second chances, most especially when it comes to love. Todd Heiden and Joan Donnelly got their second chances two decades ago after they met when both worked for the Walt Disney World Company. What began in a sweet, romantic-comedy kind of way ended in tragedy, leaving a dozen-year-old wake that remains, for Todd, as intensely painful to discuss today as when it happened.  

Jeff and Sandee
Jeff and Sandee

The young couple had much in common, yet their personalities were charmingly dissimilar – Jeff was quiet and reserved while Sandee completed the bubbly and boisterous half of the duo. Just like their married name suggests, they were both indeed bright, professionally, and personally. They fit with and balanced each other perfectly.

Allie and Shellie-Ann
Allie and Shellie-Ann

As a Florida legislative political candidate, Allie Braswell’s focus was on bringing people with different perspectives together to find common ground. Braswell, 62, and an expert in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and building relationships, had no illusions that bringing people together would be easy. And it wasn’t. But it was a former state legislator from the other side of the aisle, who surprised Braswell after his cherished wife, Shellie-Ann, died unexpectedly in 2021.

Lori and Matt
Lori and Matt

“I really had to take a deep breath and sit with the uncomfortable.” That’s how Lori Bogan recalls the moments after the two-year rollercoaster ride that was her husband Matt’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis, his passing and the days and the myriad of unexpected experiences that followed.

Jeff and Tammy
Jeff and Tammy

College sweethearts Jeff and Tammy Roberts had planned to hit the road and travel across the country in their RV before Jeff’s life was taken in a workplace shooting in Orlando. She has since pursued a new chapter by relocating to her home state of Missouri to be with her children and precious grandson.

Brady and Sara
Brady and Sara

After 37 years together, Barry and Sara Brady’s life together ended with the fall that should never have happened. “I look back and now have a clearer understanding of just how overwhelmed I was about everything.” First there’s grief, sorrow, regrets and then realizing you have to start a new chapter.