Before I was a widow, I was a wife, a mother, a technology professional, and a farm girl at heart.
My husband and I met at IBM in 1988. We became friends first, married in 1991, and built a life together centered around family, hard work, and shared dreams. He grew up on a farm. I had always wanted to live on one.
Together we raised three children, cared for cattle and sheep, and built a life we loved.
It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t glamorous. But it was ours.
Then everything changed.
In 2007, my husband was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. For more than two years, our family navigated treatments, hope, setbacks, and uncertainty. On November 18, 2009, he passed away.
Suddenly I found myself raising three grieving children while trying to navigate my own grief.
The challenges weren’t limited to loss itself.
There were school events to attend alone. Decisions that once belonged to two people now belonged to one. Financial questions. Household responsibilities. Major life choices. Children who needed stability when I wasn’t sure how to find it myself.
Like many widowed parents, I discovered there were resources that talked about grief.
There were far fewer resources that helped answer the practical questions of rebuilding a life that no longer looked the way it once did.
How do you parent while grieving?
How do you make major decisions alone?
How do you rebuild routines, confidence, friendships, and hope?
How do you move forward without feeling like you’re leaving someone behind?
Those questions stayed with me long after the hardest years had passed.
Over time, my children and I rebuilt.
We sold the farm, moved to Wisconsin, created new routines, built new relationships, and discovered that life could still hold meaning, purpose, and joy.
Along the way, I came to understand something important:
Surviving loss and rebuilding life are two very different challenges.
My professional background taught me how to solve complex problems and build systems. During nearly thirty years at IBM, I led global teams, managed large initiatives, and learned how meaningful change happens when people have the right tools, resources, and support.
Later, through entrepreneurship, Rusty Raven, community leadership, and helping launch the New Glarus Merchant Association, I discovered how much I loved helping people and communities thrive.
Looking back, there is a common thread running through all of it.
Whether building technology organizations, businesses, communities, or nonprofit programs, I have always been drawn to creating things that help other people find their footing.
Learning 2 Live Again is the convergence of those experiences.
It is the resource I wish had existed when I needed it.
Not because I have all the answers.
But because I know firsthand how overwhelming it can be to rebuild after profound loss, and I believe no one should have to navigate that journey entirely alone.
Today, Learning 2 Live Again is being built to provide practical guidance, trusted resources, meaningful community, and hope for widowed parents and families.
Because while grief may be universal, rebuilding is often learned.
And sometimes we all need help learning how to live again.
My kids and I in Alaska with our Halibut catch in 2025! We’ve never stopped traveling and have now made it to all 50 states! A goal we started as a family in 2002 and continued on after the death of my husband and their father, Steve.