How Philly widows use haiku to overcome their grief

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For six years, Susan Gross has run a widows’ group that focuses on a landscape of life issues – loss, resilience, finances, careers.

Group members Mary Elizabeth Pfeil (center) and Tobie Schupack at a gathering. Schupack, who lost her husband of 35 years in 2011, says the writing has helped her move forward.
How Philly widows use haiku to overcome their grief
And now on something new: haiku, the traditional Japanese form of poetry defined by its three-line, 17-syllable structure.

“Did I mention this
I just became a widow

Wow! my husband died”

Gross wrote that one. Others in the group have collectively written many more. It’s a way for women in the Philadelphia-area W Connection to speak directly and creatively about their lives and their challenges. And to do so in a form that offers confinement and freedom, requiring a first line of five syllables, followed by a line of seven, concluding with a line of five.
In a nation where the number of widows is growing, currently about 11 million, the women’s stories are universal – and every one unique.

The day after Bebe Netter Schwartz lost her father, her husband of 40 years awoke at 5 a.m.

“I’m having a heart attack,” he told her.

Stacey L. Schwartz died 17 days later, age 61. Three weeks after that, Bebe walked into W Connection’s monthly meeting at Rodeph Shalom synagogue on North Broad Street.

That was 2013. She hasn’t stopped…   READ THE FULL ARTICLE >