Widows may have started out their journey with children still at home.  Then the kids grow up and out, but we never stop being a mother. You may think that the best way to cope with an empty nest is merely to fill it, but that's too simple and can be dangerous. Remember the bedrooms you used to nag them to clean, now you hate their organized neatness. We raised our children to be independent and responsible.  They were ready to go, but you miss them.  A mother is constantly working herself out of a job.  And yet there is more to you than being a mother and grandmother. Some widows use their extra time and energy to return to school, volunteer, launch a new career or restart friendships that have been neglected. Occasionally, I run across one of those "burnout" charts that rank your life experiences on a stress chart.  The empty nest is up there and we need to understand that it will have an impact on our lives.  It probably makes more sense to accept the fact that life in the empty nest is both good and bad, like much of life. The truth is, life simple goes on.  What matters is how we respond to this next stage of our lives.