Where are all the Widowers?
After the last post I searched deeper for widowers blogs and information that might help. There would appear to be very little.
Are we all that low on the radar? Or do we just sit and suffer in silence? I have met one widower, who has decided to enjoy himself with large numbers of young ladies, but I think that he is rather in the minority.
There is I think little research into widowhood and even less where widowers are concerned. One researcher at my old university of Liverpool, does research the subject, but when you consider how many are bereaved in this world, the number involved in this subject is very small.
Surely decent research on identifying the problems and suggesting solutions, might be a very affordable way of improving society.
But it still doesn’t answer the question as to why so few widowers are posting on the web.
Posting helps me! So I suspect it would help others.
Widows Wear Stilettos
When I saw this article I thought good. Widows must carry on.
But it’s totally from a female perspective. What about men like me!
Memories of Polythene
My first job on leaving Liverpool University was at ICI Mond Division in Runcorn. I actually worked in Research at Runcorn Heath and like the company itself, I think where I worked no longer exists. Or should I say I couldn’t find it when I returned to the area last year.
The process for making polythene, or more correctly polyethylene, was discovered by ICI at Northwich.
The first industrially practical polyethylene synthesis was discovered (again by accident) in 1933 by Eric Fawcett and Reginald Gibson at the ICI works in Northwich, England. Upon applying extremely high pressure (several hundred atmospheres) to a mixture of ethylene and benzaldehyde they again produced a white, waxy, material. Because the reaction had been initiated by trace oxygen contamination in their apparatus the experiment was, at first, difficult to reproduce. It was not until 1935 that another ICI chemist, Michael Perrin, developed this accident into a reproducible high-pressure synthesis for polyethylene that became the basis for industrial LDPE production beginning in 1939.
For some months in my brief period at Runcorn, I shared an office with L. H. (Bert) Cross, who told me quite a bit of the history of how polythene was made. He would confirm the statement in Wikipedia that it was created by accident, as the researchers were experimenting with high pressures on ethylene gas.
Bert was an infra-red expert and he had analysed the spectrum of the compound to confirm what it was and ascertain his properties. I won’t put all of the story in, as even now many years on, I don’t want to destroy confidences. But let’s say that he found some interesting properties of polythene.
I’m not sure if it was Bert who told me, but at first they had no idea of what to do with their new product. It was very expensive and suggestions that it could be used to stiffen wax candles were probably quickly discounted.
In the end it was Radar, that used polythene because of its unique insulation properties. Even today, you’ll still find polythene as the insulation in the high-frequency cable that connects your television to the aerial.
Later I went on to work at ICI Plastics Division, but strangely I never worked on polythene, its production or properties again.
Breaking the Fashion Rules
My late wife spent quite a bit on clothes and I still don’t know what to do with a lot of her business suits. Many are new or nearly so and are all the best makes. I suppose I had better take them to the charity shop.
An article in The Sunday Times Style section called Breaking The Fashion Rules would have summed her up well. She wore clothes that suited her figure, skirts on or above the knee and despite being in her late fifties, bikinis. But as the article says, you have to make the right choices.
Did she have any secrets?
She always wore underwear that fitted and never peeked out from under a dress and she always bought her swimwear after trying on more than several in France! On the subject of underwear, how many women wear a £5 bra under a £200 dress? Balance ladies!
I’ll admit that she was reasonably trim and fit, with good shoulders and I follow a similar route. That helped her dress younger than otherwise. But I do think that it does everybody good to think that they look as best as they can.
Gay Pride in India
India is one of a few countries in this world, where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by jail of up to ten years.
But now after India has had it’s second Gay Pride march, it looks like according to The Times that this law will be repealed.
Good!
Especially, as this leaves a rather rag-bag collection of represive regimes where this ban is in force.
Why Trident?
I was always someone who thought we needed a nuclear deterrent.
But not now, as who do we use it against?
So when I read this article in The Times by Cardinal Keith O’Brien, I was more or less in agreement. Read and make your own decision.
Iranian Despots
I use the term despots advisedly and in a measured fashion. But read the first leading article in The Times and you’ll see that they have used measured, but firm tones in denouncing the Iranians for illegally imprisoning employees of the British embassy in Tehran.
To me the real problem with Iran is that the religious leaders have just too much power. I’ve read extensively on Islam and where are sound principles that were inherent in that once great religion when it was founded many hundreds of years ago. In those days, it embraced science with a vengance and women were equal.
It seems to me now that few Muslim countries are economic successes and like Iran, they always blame others for their plight. How many too, are true democracies? You can put forward all sorts of reasons, but the lack of empowerment of women is in my view, one of the main reasons. After all, the one Muslim country, that is a success is Malaysia and what do they do? Educate women properly and let them have a lot of the good jobs.
I’m very worried for Iran. Wounded, desperate and cornered animals have a habit of lashing out and taking quite a few with them.
I hope that the worst doesn’t happen. But I fear it will.
Merry Widow
Kate Boydell was widowed in 1998 and founded Merry Widow as a survival guide for young widows. She has written books and the resource has grown considerably, with lots of advice, a diary and a forum.
Give it a look.
Surviving Middle-Aged Widowhood
My heart goes out to this lady.
It’s one thing to lose your partner and then yet another to see everything disintegrate over the next few years, due to circumstances and the credit crunch. She also has two children to support.
I was lucky, in that I’m reasonably rich and my youngest child was in their mid-thirties.
Boo’s Journey Through Widowhood
Boo is a widow and writes an eloquent blog about the loss of her husband.
I have got a lot of traffic from her blog and it shows that by linking and commenting on other blogs you can grow the number of visitors.
That is why a blog is a simple way of getting publicity for your cause, views or business. Are web sites dead? If so, long live the blog!
The Anonymous Widower 