Habits of Widows
By Rondalyn Whitney
He calls another officer over. “Is this the wife?” he asks.
Is this the wife? The wife.
When occupational therapist Rondalyn Whitney’s husband, Bill, dies in a car accident, her world shatters. Left to navigate life without him while supporting their sons, Rondalyn quickly learns that the grieving process is about more than an emotion—it’s an occupation she must master.
As friends and neighbours initially offer assistance and then return to their own lives, Rondalyn faces the reality of widowhood on her own terms—crossing out the word widow in financial planning books, embracing small rituals of resilience, and learning to handle the everyday tasks Bill once managed.
Through seasons of sorrow and unexpected gratitude, she finds strength in the simplest moments, and realizes that she is capable of forging a new path. With each passing day, she discovers that grief is not about moving on—it’s about moving forward while carrying love with her.
Poignant, honest, and deeply human, Habits of Widows is a story of loss, love, and the quiet bravery of rebuilding a life. For anyone who has ever had to deal with the death of a loved one, this book is a reminder that even in darkness, the stars still shine.
Lies in the Afterlife
By Rondalyn Whitney
When the threshold between this life and not-life rips apart, it’s not going to be clear what side you’re left on.
No one tells you that. I’m sorry no one tells you that. I think someone should tell you that.
Lies in the Afterlife is not a story about death. It’s a story about love, survival, and finding your footing in the bewildering, absurd, and strangely illuminating life after loss.
After the sudden death of her husband of thirty years, a physicist with a sharp mind and mischievous humour, Rondalyn was thrust into a world she never wanted to enter. Suddenly, she was navigating grief as if it were a foreign country: its language confusing, its customs bizarre, and its rules nonsensical.
With wit and vulnerability, she pulls back the curtain on the truths and lies that shape how we survive loss, and dismantles the myths: that time heals all wounds, that funerals provide closure, that ashes are really ashes, and that "until death do us part" offers comfort when a marriage ends in tragedy. She reveals the absurdity of death rituals, the bureaucracy of mourning, the physical toll grief takes on the body, and the surprising moments of humour and resilience that appear when everything else feels impossible.
Blending memoir, philosophy, and practical wisdom, Lies in the Afterlife is both deeply personal and universally relatable.
As miraculous as it is, love is the gift of living. I want to put some hope around that back into the world. Bill was a light—he’s not gone; these books remind us all that the Bills in the world left enough behind for the rest of us if we look for it.
— Rondalyn Whitney
About Rondalyn
Rondalyn Varney Whitney is a poet, writer, occupational therapist, and researcher. Her writing narrates the lived experience of defiant healing. She writes across genres, from scholarly journals to professional texts and creative works.
She recently retired after over two decades in academia. Formerly from Appalachia, she now lives in Western Massachusetts, where she enjoys the sound of frogs, watching the watchful red-tailed hawk, and the peace of sitting by the firepit while writing in her journal and sipping Heaven’s Door bourbon that’s chilled by one orb of ice.
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