Abel Keogh

Abel is the author of the relationship guides Dating a Widower: Starting a Relationship with a Man Who's Starting Over and Marrying a Widower: What You Need to Know Before Tying the Knot as well as several other books. During the day, Abel works in corporate marketing for a technology company. His main responsibilities include making computers and software sound super sexy, coding websites, and herding cats. Abel and his wife live somewhere in the beautiful state of Utah and, as citizens of the Beehive State, are parents of the requisite five children.

Articles:

When Should the Wedding Ring Come Off?

Hi Abel, I’m interested in starting to date causally again. I’ve read through your posts and understand that most women feel uncomfortable dating a widower if he’s still wearing a wedding ring. My question to you is this: Instead of taking my wedding ring off, what if I wore it on my right hand instead of my left? Would that still make them uncomfortable? Thanks, G. Dear G: Wearing the wedding ring on your right hand instead of your left is definitely a step in the right direction but odds are it’s still going to make most women uncomfortable—especially if […]

Love the Second Time Around

Dear Abel, My wife passed away a little over a year ago. We were married for 17 years. I started dating six month after she died. After dating around for a bi,t I finally started dating someone exclusively last month. She’s a great woman and I feel fortunate to have such a smart, attractive, and wonderful woman to get to know better. The problem is that I can’t sort out my feelings about her. I like her, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if I’m love with her or just happy to have someone in my life again. […]

Wanting to Date Again

Dear Abel, I lost my wife three months ago after a tragic accident. This may sound crazy to most people but I feel like dating again. Is it normal for men to feel this way so soon after the death of a spouse? What pointers would you give someone in my situation who decided to start dating again? Thanks, T. Dear T: You’ve asked some great questions. First, there’s nothing wrong with feeling the need to date so soon after the death of your wife. Though how soon widowers have this feeling varies from person to person, wanting to date […]

A Life Alone: Adjusting to Being a Widower

A recent widower recently emailed me the following: Dear Abel, I’ve been going through your blog, and I was wondering what your response would be to learning how to be single, or being a peace with being alone first. You’ve pointed out several times that widowers jump into a relationship to possibly fill in a void, and in that case, perhaps an explanation as to how you dealt with being alone during the first few months would be helpful. I lost my fiancé a month ago, and I am figuring out how to go through this myself. Thanks, Mark (name […]

Former Widower Reviews ‘Go On,’ TV Show About Widower

I don’t watch a lot of TV. With five young kids and four books in various stages of completion, I don’t have the time or energy to commit to the boob tube. But with Marathon Girl glued to the Olympics for two weeks (about the only time she watches TV), I kept seeing the promos for the new Mathew Perry show “Go On.” The subject matter of a recent widower trying to move on was enough to entice me to put down the pen for 30 minutes and see if the show was worth watching. Much to […]

OTH Writer Publishes Book, ‘Creating a New Normal’

Creating a New Normal…After the Death of a Child is the title of Sandy Fox’s new book to help the newly bereaved as well as the seasoned griever find their way through the darkness and into the light again to a life full of happiness and new meaning. “Learning to rebuild your life by creating a new normal is what most bereaved parents strive for,” Fox said. “This book is full of ideas from those who have been there, and using any of them will give you the practical and emotional support needed to help you learn to live in […]

Father Starts Web Project for Dads Who Have Lost a Child

After going through the loss of two of my children over an eighteen-month span, I came to the realization that there is a lack of support services and information available to fathers suffering the loss of a child. I made a promise to myself that once I was strong enough, I would find a way to help other men going through the devastating loss of a child. As a result of that promise, I have developed a project that is designed to reach out to all bereaved dads traveling this lonely and, what appears to be, never-ending road known as […]

‘Up’ With Grief: Film Review

It’s hard to find movies for adults that adequately deal with the death of a spouse and putting one’s life back together. Fortunately, one of the movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar does a great job of dealing with the subjects of death, grief, and moving on better than any other film in recent memory—and its target audience is kids. The movie? “Up.” In the first 20 minutes of the film, we see Carl Fredricksen as a boy meeting his future wife, Ellie. When they grow up, they both want to become explorers and journey to faraway lands. Ellie […]

Grief Book Review: Sea Changes

By Abel Keogh — Ever since my late wife died, I’ve had a hard time reading fiction where the main character is a widow or widower. Though the authors try hard, most of them don’t do a good job of capturing what it’s like to lose a spouse. Oh sure, most of them do a good job describing the sense of loss and grief that accompanies the death of a spouse, but when it comes to the internal emptiness that comes with it, most of them fall short. So when I learned that Gail Graham’s latest novel, Sea Changes, was […]

Book Review: Sea Changes by Gail Graham

Ever since my late wife died, I’ve had a hard time reading fiction where the main character is a widow or widower. Though the authors try hard, most of them don’t do a good job of capturing what it’s like to lose a spouse. Oh sure, most of them do a good job describing the sense of loss and grief that accompanies the death of a spouse, but when it comes to the internal emptiness that comes with it, most of them fall short. So when I learned that Gail Graham’s latest novel, Sea Changes, was about a widow living […]

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