She’s A 29-Year-Old Widow Opening Up About What The Grieving Process Has Been Like For Her

Emily Chan |

May 13, 2023

hanurik - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only

Losing a spouse at any age is heartbreaking. But when your partner passes away in your twenties and thirties, it can be absolutely devastating because the person you thought you would spend the rest of your life with is no longer around.

TikToker Laura Swindle (@lauraswindle) is a 29-year-old widow and mother of two. She’s talking about losing her husband at a young age and what the grieving process has been like.

Three weeks ago, Laura’s husband passed away, and the experience has been the hardest thing she’s ever gone through.

Laura and her husband were together for eleven years. They basically grew up together and shared so many memories.

When they first started dating, they discovered they had frequented the same places as children, like their neighborhood pool and the local Mexican restaurant.

Laura’s dad worked as a police officer in the same town her husband grew up in. And her husband’s father was a firefighter in the town she grew up in. Their lives overlapped in so many ways.

Laura says that something no one ever tells you when you’re grieving is that everything reminds you of your lost loved one.

“Walking through church, every time I think about the last time he was there on Easter. Looking at our children, my son looks exactly like him,” said Laura.

And things you usually wouldn’t give much thought to suddenly hit you out of nowhere. For Laura, it was the last bath he gave their daughter. When she spotted her daughter’s dress still on the bathroom counter, she broke down in tears.

hanurik – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only

But instead of running away from the memories, she chooses to embrace them. The times they’ve had together and with their children are memories she will always hold sacred.

So she wants to honor the past and her late husband by returning to the places they always went to as a family, even though it makes her sad right now.

“Even though it feels insane to be a widow at 29 and not have my person anymore, it is terrible. But I know we’ll get through it, and I know I will have happy moments again, and I try not to feel guilty for them because I know he would want me to have those moments,” concluded Laura.

If you are currently dealing with the death of someone close to you, just remember there is no right or wrong way to mourn the loss of a loved one. Different people grieve in their own unique manners.