At the time of my husband's untimely death, we had been married forty-five years, which meant I had not just lost my one true love, but I was also lost We were each other's best friends, and whatever one of us did was filtered through the lens of what we knew about the other's desires. I thought it impossible to survive without him because there were too many tasks, decisions, plans that he alone managed. As I shared with close friends my struggle to accomplish left-brain tasks previously foreign to me, they laughed heartily. I saw that grief had a funny side. Each segment of my book tells a...

DESCRIPTION: BEAUTY FOR ASHES is Dr. Ruth Baskerville's story of how she has managed her personal, profession, romantic and spiritual life over the four years since becoming a widow after forty-five years of marriage. The title comes from Isaiah 61:3, which assures those who are mourning that God will replace our unbearable sadness with strength, stamina - beauty for ashes Dr. Ruth proves, through her tender, but candid, true storytelling, that when we look for the bits of humor surrounding deep sadness after loss, we can find joy and contentment again. And when we strive beyond that natural...