324. The Power of Community in Widowhood: A Widows Unfiltered Interview with Jennifer Schroeder
The Widowed Mom Podcast
Krista St-Germain
4.6 • 649 Ratings
🗓️ 11 August 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Community isn't just about having people around you - it's about finding those who truly understand the weight of what you're carrying.
When Jennifer Schroeder lost her husband Jerry after 40 years together, she discovered that the isolation of grief was almost as crushing as the loss itself.
Join us this week as Jennifer shares how joining a community of widows transformed her relationship with grief. From arguing that loving life again was "a bridge too far" to finding peace in the belief that her days as a widow were always meant to be, she reveals the specific tools and mindset shifts that helped her move from survival mode to building a meaningful future.
Get full show notes, transcript, and more information here: https://www.coachingwithkrista.com/324
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Widowed Mom Podcast, Episode 324, Widows Unfiltered, an interview with Jennifer Schroeder. |
| 0:10.8 | Welcome to the Widowed Mom podcast, the only podcast that offers a proven process to help you work through your grief to grow, evolve, and create a future you can truly look forward to. |
| 0:24.7 | Here's your host, Master Certified Life Coach, Grief Expert, Widow, and Mom, Krista St. Germain. |
| 0:33.4 | Hey there, welcome to this episode. I am delighted to introduce you to Jennifer Schroeder today. |
| 0:40.1 | I've already recorded the episode and I usually go back and record the intro later. |
| 0:44.3 | And one of the things that after we hit stop, Jennifer and I stayed on and talked a little bit. |
| 0:49.4 | And I just really want you all to know how important I think it is that you find community in grief. |
| 0:57.1 | It's so much more than that, though, right? |
| 0:58.4 | It's also community in life. |
| 1:00.6 | And I don't think I fully realized the value of community until so much later in life. |
| 1:07.9 | Really, in this is the past, since I've become a coach, honestly. |
| 1:12.0 | And I'm realizing it more and more and more. And my hope is that if you're a widow, that the community that |
| 1:17.2 | resonates with you the most is mine and that you'll come into my community. But even if it |
| 1:22.1 | isn't, I really want you to consider and listen to Jennifer talk about the value of being in a community, the value of having |
| 1:29.2 | your experience reflected back in the lives of other women, the value of seeing what's going on |
| 1:36.0 | with them and learning from them, the value of hearing them articulate the experience that they're |
| 1:41.5 | having in a way that makes it make more sense and makes it more useful |
| 1:45.7 | to you in your life. And then just even now, of course, I am the coach in my own community, |
| 1:51.4 | but what a gift it has been to me personally, having been going through a challenging part in my |
| 1:57.1 | life, to have this whole community of women who are cheering me on. Even if we're not |
| 2:03.3 | having conversations about it, I'm getting messages from them. They are saying nice things to me, |
| 2:08.5 | like that just the collective energy of knowing that you have a community behind you is something |
... |
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