"Has anyone hit on you yet?"
My brother asked me this a few months into my grieving. "No," I told him. "Of course not. I have widow cooties."
Today we’re proud to publish Susan Seligson’s personal essay, “Life After Death.” She took time to speak with us about the writing process, love, grief, sex — and what happens when you just want to get hit on, but all you receive are hugs. We'll turn it over to Susan:
“In the months following my husband¹s death, I couldn¹t write much. I resisted some friends’ well-meaning insistence that I write about what I was experiencing. Throughout my career I¹ve told my own stories in a way that — or so I¹m often told — touches a common Hooksexup, makes people laugh, cry, or both. But it takes time to gain the clarity to do this. (Joan Didion wrote nothing for a long time before she began her stunning book The Year of Magical Thinking.) I may never feel compelled to tell the whole story, but this Hooksexup essay touches on just one aspect of widowhood I find provocative — how recent widows are habitually viewed as asexual — and one I can¹t recall reading much about. I’m eager to see comments from readers, especially those who have lost their partners and can relate to that feeling of ‘otherness.’”
Read the entire essay here.