Tough times after my husband’s death inspired me – Matilda Amissah-Arthur speaks about new book

It was undoubtedly a difficult time in her life, the pain of losing a loved one was enough to push her to write, more so the circumstances surrounding the demise and people’s reactions, responses and the like.

Considering she didn’t have much of a support system to fall on, she decided to pick motivation from that to do for others what she didn’t have the chance to have; write a book on widowhood and its challenges.

Former Second Lady, Matilda Amissah-Arthur’s book titled ‘Strength in the storm, When a loved one dies’ seeks to give solace to widows and widowers who have lost their partners and are going through tough times.

Sharing her story on what inspired her to write this book, she noted that there are not enough support systems in the country that shares in the pains of widows and widowers.

The librarian stated that ”When my husband died, I realised that there were no books in the system that could help somebody whose husband had died and therefore, I decided that I’ll use my experience to help people in the same situation, encourage them and also just give them hope to go through their loss”.

She further explained that what one needs during the departure of their loved one is not just financial support, these widows and widowers she stressed, need people who are reliable and can easily communicate with them any day during those trying moments.

Matilda Amissah-Arthur said “More importantly, people want to find people they can call at every time, places they can go and they’ll not be judged. For example if in the middle of the night, the person is worried, the person wants to be able to call somebody for that person to listen to them”

She added that, widows “want a group who have gone through the same problem to share experiences” so they can comfortably go through their widowhood rites without much grief”.

During the official launch of the book in Accra, she noted that, the money solicited from the buying of books will be deposited into the coffers of “Breaking the myth”, a Non-Governmental Organization spearheaded by her to support widows, widowers, disadvantaged children and women in the society.

The much awaited book written was officially launched in Accra on Wednesday, July 3, 2019.