A Letter to Vanessa Bryant — From One Sudden Widow to Another

Dear Vanessa Bryant,

I’m so sorry for your loss. To lose your husband is a devastating loss, but to lose your precious daughter also…it seems unbearable.

I was 43 when my husband and the father of our three children was killed in a tragic snowmobile accident. One moment we were saying “I love you” and enjoying the day…the next he was gone. The shock was so palpable that it was as though I had fallen into the icy cold of the glacier’s deep crevasse.

I don’t pretend to know what you’re feeling or experiencing, Vanessa. I’m praying for you and your children and all of those around you. And I hope my words will give you some comfort in your sudden grief. 

Every morning is a reminder…for a time. 

In the first few weeks that you awaken, you will experience losing your husband and daughter again and again. You will open your eyes and for a few brief seconds, you will have forgotten. Then the dawning will fall on you and your heart will break anew. I spent so many mornings crumpled by the sadness of again coming face to face with my husband’s death almost as if it were the first time. This “twilight grief” will go away. I don’t know how long it will be, but by God’s grace…you will not hurt as much as you do now.

You’ll long for your husband.

No marriage is perfect, but you and your husband chose marriage continuously. Through all the ups and downs, you hung in there and bravely chose commitment every.single.day. Death took that away from you. You didn’t want to stop being a wife, a lover, a best friend, a companion. It was ripped from you suddenly and you’re left longing. Longing for his smell…his touch…his voice. Aching to make love again. To feel his body against yours. You will ache for him.


Christine Yount Jones
Christine Yount Jones
Christine Yount Jones is Content Director for Outreach Media Group. She has published several books and hundreds of articles about ministry in the last three decades. Before his death in 2003, Michael Yount and Christine had three children. Now, she and her husband, Ray Jones, together have five grown kids.

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