Welcome to The Widowed Parent Blog
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How to Prepare for Your Inevitable Death
What a cheerful blog post title! But it’s true: We all die eventually and many unexpectedly. If you’re reading this, you may have also lost your partner much sooner than expected. At some point after my husband died, I became terrified of what would happen to my daughter if I died too. My husband did…
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What Widowed Parents Need to Know About Social Security Survivor Benefits and Taxes
Since we’re in the midst of tax season, I wanted to answer some frequently asked questions on Social Security survivor benefits and taxes: Are my Social Security survivor benefits taxable? It depends on your other income, but there are two methods for figuring this out in advance of filing your taxes: Method A: The IRS…
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Grief Camps for Kids, Teens, Families & Adults, Updated for 2025
I’ve updated the list of grief camps to include 140 camps around the US, scheduled mostly for this spring and summer, but also some for this fall. Most of them are free, but many of those that aren’t typically will waive the fee for those in need. There are both day and overnight camps, and…
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More College Scholarships for Students Who Have Lost a Parent, Updated for 2025-2026
For widowed parents with a student either applying to college or already in college, I’ve just added 70 scholarships to the list of college scholarships for students with a deceased parent. Most of them are limited to residents of specific states, and many are specific to the deceased being in the military or a first…
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How to Make Christmas Suck Less When You’re Grieving…
Celebrating Christmas when your spouse recently died sucks. The first Christmas after my husband died, I clearly remember dreading all the associated festivities and socializing, but also feeling self-imposed pressure to somehow make the holidays feel extra magical for my seven-year-old daughter, who still believed in Santa, to try to compensate for having lost her…
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How to Make Thanksgiving Suck Less When You’re Grieving…
I can still easily remember how difficult the first Thanksgiving after my husband died was. When you feel like you have nothing to be thankful for, having to celebrate Thanksgiving sucks, plain and simple. “I can’t believe Daddy will be gone a month on Thanksgiving,” our seven-year-old daughter said the weekend before the holiday. I…
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Five Tips for Widowed Parents to Reduce College Costs
If you’ve read my blog post on how to get more college financial aid and are looking for more ideas on how to reduce the cost of college, check out these strategies for your kid: To learn more about college financial aid, read my previous blog posts: Disclaimer: I am not an expert in college…
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Ten Tips for Widowed Parents to Get More College Financial Aid
If you read my blog post on the basics of college financial aid, you learned that there are three types of financial aid: need-based aid, merit-based aid and private aid/scholarships. And then you may have learned from my blog post on the FAFSA that your Student Aid Index is calculated based on your and your…
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What Widowed Parents Need to Know about College Financial Aid: The FAFSA & CSS Profile
As I mentioned in my blog post on the basics of financial aid, I’ve been researching college costs and financial aid in case there’s something I can do now that will help get more aid when my daughter applies to college in four years. I recently read the 2024 edition of Paying for College, 2025:…
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College Scholarships for Students Who Have Lost a Parent, Updated for 2025-2026
For those of you with a student either applying to college or already in college, I’ve updated the list of college scholarships for students with a deceased parent for the 2025-2026 academic year. I’ve added 20 scholarships, so the list now totals 86 scholarships, separated into these categories. Many of the scholarships will not accept…