re: Prayers needed….any words of encouragement or advice.

I'm so very sorry about your wife The OT is a calamity but at the end of the day we all support each other. All the best to you

man, just did some research.

I will say this... she is the 2nd "employee" of where she works that has passed away in past several weeks at a far too young age. devastating... prayers to your family.

I’m bumping this thread to see how you are holding up amigo.

You and your family are still in my prayers.

You have a great attitude. Prayers for you and your family!

I am sorry for your loss and what you are going through.

I’ve read several of Rick Rigsby’s books. He also lost his wife when they had small children. There are several YouTube videos of motivational speeches he’s given that include dealing with the loss of a spouse.

Might be worth reading or listening to some of his material.

Praying for you and your family.

I am so sorry, Prayers sent. You are going to need support from family. Are your parents and/or hers available to help? If they are not near you, you may have to move near them. Or vise versa.

I'm so very sorry for you loss.

Here is a few things I like to read and listen to when I'm having a bad day. Hopefully they help a little.

Nora McInerny Ted Talk

She also has a podcast, Terrible Thanks for Asking.

The Ball and Box Analogy

Don't ever apologize for posting things like this. TD is a big community and we are all here for you.

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It Is Well with My Soul - Spoken Word by Lloyd Newell

Life can be so unpredictable—joys and sorrows, beautiful blessings and distressing difficulties can come unexpectedly. Our life’s dreams and plans can change in an instant. We all know this to be true. So how can we find peace amid such turbulence?
Horatio Spafford knew something about life’s unexpected challenges. He was a successful attorney and real estate investor who lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Around the same time, his beloved four-year-old son died of scarlet fever.
Thinking a vacation would do his family some good, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to England, planning to join them after he finished some pressing business at home. However, while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship was involved in a terrible collision and sunk. More than 200 people lost their lives, including all four of Horatio Spafford’s precious daughters. His wife, Anna, survived the tragedy. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to her husband that began: “Saved alone. What shall I do?”
Horatio immediately set sail for England. At one point during his voyage, the captain of the ship, aware of the tragedy that had struck the Spafford family, summoned Horatio to tell him that they were now passing over the spot where the shipwreck had occurred.1
As Horatio thought about his daughters, words of comfort and hope filled his heart and mind. He wrote them down, and they have since become a well-beloved hymn:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll—
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well with my soul.2
Perhaps we cannot always say that everything is well in all aspects of our lives. There will always be storms to face, and sometimes there will be tragedies. But with faith in a loving God and with trust in His divine help, we can confidently say, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”

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This hymn and the story behind it has helped comfort me through tragedies and difficult times for at least the last 20 years. I pray for strength and healing for your family.

I'm not going to pretend like I know what you've gone through, but I lost my fiancee in a car accident about a month before we were to be married. We had been together 5 years and I thought she was the greatest thing on this earth, then one day she was just suddenly gone. It tore me apart and put me in a very dark place for years, I turned to drug use to numb the pain and got addicted to opioids. That eventually led me to homelessness and joblessness, I hit rock bottom and never thought I'd dig out - I didn't even WANT to dig out.

For some unknown reason, I randomly decided to attend church with my mom one Sunday in the midst of my homelessness and living on bread and peanut butter for nearly a year. I hadn't told my family I was homeless and addicted to pain pills, so I spent my last bit of money on washing my only "nice" clothes I had left and getting a shower to attend church.

At church that day there was this girl sitting in the row behind us alone, turns out she was a couple years younger than me and had gone to the same high school as me. I immediately recognized her name from school, although we had never really interacted back then.

I kept going to church the following weeks, doing everything I could to hide my homelessness. I listened closely to the messages the pastor had every Sunday and I felt like he was always speaking directly to me, no matter the subject. A couple weeks into this newfound religious experience, my mom introduced me to a man that would later give me my chance at a great career. A career I have to this day.

But more importantly, throughout the weeks of going to this church I grew to get to know this girl I had gone to high school with, this quiet and sweet girl that had become VERY pretty as we got older. She reminded me so much of my fiancee in all best ways, but also added all these new amazing factors.

I'm now married to that girl and we're expecting our first child soon, living in a beautiful house near the beach in Florida, and have an amazing career.

My point is that I once felt like my entire life was over, I had hit rock bottom and wondered how God could do this to me. My fiancee was the girl of my dreams, and for a long time I compared everyone and everything to her. I couldn't live without her I thought, she was everything I wanted and I was madly in love with her when she was unexpectedly taken from me.

I now know that she's here as a part of me, as a part of her family, and even a part of my wife. I know she's happy and approves of what I've made of my life and my now wife, it's a feeling I have deep down that's hard to explain but I can't deny it. She's always here.

I know you don't feel like it now, but you can find that happiness again. Keep the faith and God will take care of those who take care of themselves. My whole life changed when I started going to church again and truly listening, it's crazy how fast these good things started happening to me. I wasn't religious at all before that, but in my life the evidence of God is undeniable.

Keep the faith my man, you're allowed to mourn and be sad and even angry. But keep your head down and do the right thing for your children, pray, go to church, and do the right thing; true happiness and contentment will find you without you having to go look for it. And the best part is that your wife will never be gone, she'll be with you until the end. You just have to get to that point mentally where you live your life in the best way possible in order to honor her.

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you have family to support you? Church?

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This.

Surround your self and children with family. Lean on your parents if they are an option and still with us.

Take care of yourself. If ever counseling was made for a person, it is you at this moment. You are going through what has to easily be the worst time in your life. Talk to someone. It doesn’t make you a puss to talk to someone especially about this.

Don’t get lost and drown in “being there for the kids” you need to physically be there of course, but don’t spread yourself too thin.

AVOID ALCOHOL. You will feel better for about 3 hours but then you will be a hungover guy tomorrow with a dead wife and 3 kids to take care of and a hangover. Never forget that. EVERYTHING is worse with a hangover. Even something as bad as this.

I am so damned sorry. There are no other words. I wish you and your family the best, something, anything.

Damn.