Laced with comfort and humor, Primer is a useful and practical guide, a tender, personal instruction manual for beginning a life alone. Each essay is a ladder with strong rungs, lifting the surviving spouse out of the morass of grief and sadness into a place of purpose, direction and hope for the future. The constant theme is survival, vowing to live with grace and courage in the face of devastating tragedy. As widows, we belong to a sisterhood, a bond forged by a life-changing event. Although we begin as strangers, we will come to know each other because of the experience we share. Primer will be a constant companion for the next among us to be called widow.