Finding light in a dark season: Karen’s story

December 2025

To coincide with the launch of her book One Sacred Life, WAY volunteer Karen Whybrow shares how she has navigated life as a young widow – and found light even in the darkest times…

“When my husband Ben died, our daughters were still so small that their feet couldn’t reach the edge of their car seats. I remember looking at their sleeping faces and wondering how on earth I was meant to carry all of this – the grief, the fear, the parenting, the paperwork, the decisions –  alone.

For a long time, I lived in survival mode. The days were full, but I was empty.

People told me I was strong, but mostly I felt like I was dissolving.

And then, one night, I stepped outside and looked up at the moon.

It was ordinary – just a quiet sliver in the sky, but it was the first thing I’d seen in months that wasn’t asking anything of me. The world kept moving, even when I couldn’t. The tides rose. The moon shifted. Nature didn’t rush my healing, but it also didn’t abandon me in the stillness.

That moment became the seed of One Sacred Life.

I didn’t intend to write a book. I was writing scraps of my truth, grief notes really, small pieces of myself on the backs of receipts, in the notes app on my phone, on the corners of endless to do lists. Over time, those fragments began to form a path. Not out of grief, but through it. A way to navigate a life I didn’t choose but was trying to honour.

What motivated me to turn those private notes into a book was simple. I didn’t want any widow to feel as alone as I had.

WAY was one of the first places I found people who really got it. People who didn’t flinch at the hard parts. People who knew the weight of a life that changed in a single breath. I wanted to offer something back – my story, a mirror, a map for anyone trying to rebuild in the aftermath of loss.

And winter, especially, can make everything feel heavier. The dark comes earlier. The days get quieter. The ache becomes sharper because the world slows down and suddenly there’s more room to feel.

So here are a few things that helped me through my darkest winters and might support you too.

Practical ways to get through the darkest season

1. Keep one tiny ritual

Not a big routine, not a perfect plan, just one gentle anchor.

A candle lit every evening.

An intentional breath in the supermarket queue or at a red light. 

A few moments in nature.

A cup of tea held in both hands and savoured.

One thing that tells your nervous system ‘I’m still here’, and that matters.

2. Let yourself move, slowly

Grief gets trapped when we freeze.

Movement doesn’t need to be dramatic.

A five-minute walk.

A stretch while the kettle boils.

Breathing with your feet on the ground.

In winter, especially, movement keeps the heaviness from settling too deep.

3. Ask for help before you think you deserve it

This one took me years.

You don’t have to wait until you’re ‘struggling enough’.

Your grief is reason enough. Your humanity is reason enough.

4. Stay connected to one person who feels safe

Not everyone will understand your grief, but some people will.

Even one safe person is enough to get you through the thickest dark. There are many of these people here in WAY’s peer support network. 

5. Remember that healing isn’t linear, it’s seasonal

Just like winter, grief has its own pace.

Some seasons are for surviving. Some for softening. Some for rebuilding.

Nothing is wrong with you for feeling how you feel. There is no right or wrong in these unprecedented times. 

I wrote One Sacred Life because grief reshaped my world and in the reshaping, I found pieces of myself I thought I’d lost forever and others I’d never met before. If this book can offer even the smallest bit of warmth, company, or hope to someone navigating their own winter, then every word was worth it.

Thank you, WAY, for being part of my story and for holding space for so many of us learning how to live again."

To win a copy of One Sacred Life, please enter your details below, before 12noon on 21st January 2026.

The winner will be announced in WAY's January ENews.