I began my blog, The Widow Wears Pink, without much thought. I considered it for just a few minutes before I opened my computer and started typing. What happened after that was very unexpected.
I think I hit a nerve with widows. I obviously understood them, and they appreciated my honesty about life after loss. I connected with many that I never would have known otherwise. It was the best therapy I could have ever imagined.
I rode the wave for a few years but then stopped just as abruptly as I started. To be honest, there was no one definite reason. Did I just run out of things to say?
Was The Widow Wears Pink Just A Little Bit Famous?
The height of my writing career probably came when I was freelancing for Today.com. They had published a few of my articles, which was very exciting, but actual craziness hit when they promoted my article If I Had Written A Blog As A Teen In The 80s.
This essay was not about widowhood. It was all about nostalgia. It became a truly viral moment, and I loved every minute of it.
I met a woman in a yoga class during that time. When she heard my name, she said, “Wow. I know who you are. You’re a little famous.” All I could do was laugh. Was I?
Then Came Living The Second Act
When I met Mimi, a former editor of a popular online magazine, it was as if we were kindred spirits. She wasn’t a widow, but we had the same passion for writing and connecting to women in our age group who were going through any kind of transition in life.
We decided to start our own website, Living The Second Act. It started as a super-fun venture. We connected with writers all over the country and some of our articles became very popular.
Our problem was that we were both writers (and she was also an editor). We had the writing thing down pat but neither of us were business people. We had no idea how to monetize our little site. Not only weren’t we making money, we were spending it like crazy to keep it going. It turned into a bit of a money pit.
Although it may not have been the money-making venture we had hoped I learned a lot from the experience. I also made a great friend who I miss working with. But we had to let it go.
Back To The Widow Wears Pink
I may have stopped blogging about myself for the last few years, but I am still writing.
I turned to work for entertainment magazines, which is a lot of fun. As a self-proclaimed TV junkie, I now get to write about my favorite TV shows and other areas of entertainment. I have covered everything from Real Housewives to Bachelor Nation to all celebrity gossip to my favorite guilty pleasure, General Hospital.
That novel I hoped to write…still working on THEM. I have started more than one but am not close to finishing any.
Recently, someone I have only known for a short time discovered The Widow Wears Pink. She asked me why I stopped writing it and how I was unable to monetize it. I have no answer to the latter.
I thought about why I stopped writing about myself. Did I run out of stories? Maybe, but there are now new ones to be told. I am no longer a young widow of school-aged children. I am someone going through the stages of becoming an empty-nester and it can be a bit of a whirlwind. Happy, sad, scary, and exciting all at the same time. Plus doing it kind of alone is very different than as a couple.
So I’m back. Just going to throw it out there and see how it goes, just as I did the first time. I have absolutely no expectations for the second time around, just enjoyment.
Stacy was a stay-at-home mom/part-time preschool teacher whose life was turned upside down in 2011 when her husband passed away suddenly of a heart attack. She is raising her two fabulous daughters, who are turning into wonderful young women. In 2016, she started a blog about her experience as a young widow, The Widow Wears Pink. This led her to write for other publications including Huffington Post, Today.com, Scary Mommy, Grown & Flown, Kveller, Modern Loss, Thought Catalog, and many more. In 2018 she started Living the Second Act with fellow writer Mimi Golub. Today, Stacy and her daughters are happily living their “new normal” while always keeping her husband’s spirit alive.
