Since Mom Died

The archive

Every chapter, newest first

All eighteen chapters on this desk. For the reading order that follows the first week, the first month and the first hundred days, use start here or the front page.

  • Should you drive Dad everywhere yourself or arrange rides?
    The right ride is the one Dad will actually use, without turning you into a full-time chauffeur or making him feel like cargo.2026-09-12
  • Dad insists on fixing the house himself. When should you hire it out?
    A respectful way to decide which household jobs are still his, which ones need another pair of hands, and which ones should quietly leave his list.2026-09-12
  • My father is lonely since Mom died
    Loneliness after a wife's death is common and it is not a diagnosis. Standing company, one room he will walk into, and the NIA's plain list of what connection looks like 2026-09-11
  • How long does grief last for a man his age
    The NIA does not hand grief a calendar. What it does give a daughter of a west county widower: no rules, mourning takes time, and a two-week line for specific signs that belong to 2026-09-11
  • How do I actually help Dad now that Mom is gone?
    A west county kitchen-table plan for the daughter who wants to help her widowed father without turning him into a project: the list, the week, the family conversation, and when the2026-09-11
  • Dad's house is a mess since Mom died
    Start with one room and the walkways, not with shame. A west county plan for mail piles, the fridge, laundry, fall hazards, and the cleaning Medicare will not pay for.2026-09-11
  • Dad will not take care of himself, and I cannot make him
    How to help a stubborn widowed father without a fight: one hour, one task he already accepts, the script that asks him to do it for you, and the line that belongs to his doctor.2026-09-11
  • Dad stopped going out after Mom died
    Church, the barber, the VFW, a senior center lunch: how to tell a ride problem from a will problem, and how to walk him into one room without a campaign.2026-09-11
  • Dad never cooked. So what does he eat now?
    A logistics plan for a widower who never cooked: the five-minute shelf, the leftover plate, Meals on Wheels in St. Louis County, and the difference between no skill and no appetite2026-09-11
  • Dad is losing weight since Mom passed
    Weight you can see from across the table is a call to his doctor. What to write down, what to put in the fridge this week, and the public pages that refuse to let a daughter diagno2026-09-11
  • Dad is living alone now. How do I tell if he is okay?
    A visit checklist for a widowed father living alone in west St. Louis County: fridge, pills, mail, shower, bills, and the quiet that belongs to his doctor, with public sources.2026-09-11
  • Dad is drinking more since Mom died
    Count the bottles without a speech. What the NIA wants his doctor to hear about alcohol after a spouse dies, how it meets his medicines, and the 988 number if you are frightened to2026-09-11
  • Senior center near Chesterfield for my dad
    Aging Ahead's senior centers with their phone numbers, parish groups, the VFW post locator, grief and widower groups, parks and recreation, and Meals on Wheels sign-up: a 2026-09-10
  • Mom did everything and now Dad can't manage
    The invisible household a wife ran for fifty years, written out as a checklist, and how a daughter divides it between Dad, herself and a helper, with 2026 sources from the National2026-09-10
  • First winter alone for elderly Dad
    Thermostat, furnace, the front step, the driveway, the car, the pantry and the phone: a station-by-station winter checklist for a father alone in Glencoe or Ballwin, built on the N2026-09-10
  • Dad still driving after Mom died
    The National Institute on Aging's warning signs and its script for the talk, the driving evaluation, how Missouri's Driver Condition Report works, and the rides t2026-09-10
  • Dad isn't eating since Mom died
    The difference between not cooking and not hungry, the plate-in-the-fridge trick, Meals on Wheels sign-up for St. Louis County, and the weight loss that belongs to his doctor, with2026-09-10
  • Dad is depressed after Mom died
    What the National Institute on Aging says is common after losing a spouse, what it says to bring to a doctor, the two-week line, and the 988 Lifeline, in a chapter that diagnoses n2026-09-10
  • Dad forgets his pills since Mom died
    Weekly organizers, one pharmacy, large-print labels, a Sunday call and a helper who checks the box, built from the National Institute on Aging's medicine safety page, with2026-09-10
  • A companion for an elderly widowed father
    Lunch, the grocery run, a walk, the game on the radio, laundry folded together: what non-medical companion care is and is not, how to introduce it as company rather than care, and 2026-09-10