Lewis

I wanted to make everyone aware of InLieu Gifts. Patty who owns the company is a part of the widow community and has a heart for those of us who are grieving. She decided to create an offering for people who do not know what to say but want to do something to show their support to loved ones in grief. As you view her site you will see that her creations are very elegant and thoughtful. InLieu Gifts is sponsoring Widda.org by donating a portion of their profits to help fund the website. We want to thank Patty for her support of us at Widda.org. Please visit her site and pass the word to those you think may be interested in purchasing gifts for those in grief. http://inlieugifts.com Patty's personal message: http://inlieugifts.com/p/widda-friends Lewis

Your safety on this forum is desired so that you can have the best experience and emotional healing as possible. Widda.org wants to assure you that your personal information will not willingly be given to anyone. The purpose of this forum is to help young widows(ers) in grief find comfort and healing. To help with this purpose, Widda.org will not sell, redistribute, or publicize your private information. The information that we receive from members to create an account is strictly for Widda.org purposes. To help secure your safety on this forum, Widda.org only requires a valid email address and the fact that you are grieving. Although spammers, trolls, or the like, are not tolerated, there is no guarantee that they do not register an account. Because of this, your anonymity largely falls on you, the member. Here are some steps you can take to assure your privacy on this forum: 1) Do not post any information that you do not want the world to see. 2) If you do not want your name to be seen, use a different name. 3) Report any suspected trolls, spammers, or anyone that is bullying to the moderators or administrators. 4) Do not give out personal information to anyone. Remember: - Once you share something online you no longer have control of it - Your post will be online for years to come - Some people may use your post in ways you did not intend - Some people may share your info to others that you do not approve - If you want complete anonymity you must not give out any personal information IMPORTANT: Widda.org will never ask for your financial details. Do not reply to anyone on this forum asking for your financial information. This forum is intended for emotional support, not financial support. IF there is ever a time a fund is created to help out a fellow widow(er), it will HAVE to be approved by the site's administrators in conjunction with the moderators. If a member asks you directly for money, you are to report them immediately. Widdabagos: There are many lifelong friendships that have started on this forum. Many here know each other personally and have met many times. As you meet people on this forum, there may be opportunities to meet at Widdabagos. Please make sure that you meet in groups and take all precautions necessary to keep your safety as you meet outside of the online anonymity. Keep in mind that your anonymity on this forum is up to you, as Widda.org will not give out your email address or any private information. With high profile social media and/or a simple Google search, you can be found online pretty easily if you give your full name, phone number, or any private information to anyone. You may not be concerned, but be aware of the possibilities.

I am so glad to hear that everything is going good! My wife was a double lung donor to an awesome lady who had CF. The recipient survived and has since been married and lives a happy life! I have been in contact and even visited her and her family. We are even fb friends! Such a rewarding gift of life. I will continue to pray for healing for Kathleen!

Yes, Widda is slang for widow/er. Maureen is correct as it was derived at one of our bagos in Missouri along with the idea for the logo. By the time this website came about I already had the logo, so I registered the domain name. It worked out pretty nicely. I am glad to hear that the site is helpful to you. I hope it helps you as much as it did me. Lewis

Thanks! I have already been notified of the problem. I am scheduled to work on it this weekend. Lewis

Ha, sorry Jeff! There is a fix but I have been sidetracked as it requires a bit more attention than I have been able to give it. I'll have time this weekend to tackle it.

Hi CG, I will check to see if this is an option. I am working on a mobile version of the site to help mobile users. It is not on the immediate future but down the road a bit. Also, the software company that created the forum software is promising a mobile friendly version that is currently in beta testing. They have not set a release date, but that will help out a bunch when it is ready. In the mean time there is a not-so-pretty mobile version that you can access by clicking the "Mobile" link at the top right of the page. I'll check on the theme layout to see if your request is possible. Lewis

Unfortunately the Like button if not compatible with the new update. I am checking for a fix or a replacement Likes are fixed!

Wow, thanks for the shout out. I will be the first to say that the board would be impossible without Jess and Justin and the Team. I remember the heartbreak at the news that the old site would be shutting down. Thinking about how much the site helped me through my loss and the great friends that came from it, I just knew I couldn't just sit back and do nothing. Trying to contact the old site owners proved to be useless, so I proceeded to work on widda.org. I had no ending plan but knew I just needed to get the site up and running. My poor wife and kids didn't see me all weekend as all my attention was focused on getting the site ready. Once the site was completed, I sat back and looked at it wondering "now what?" Holy cow what do I do with this?? I was referred to the proboards site and and saw that I knew and even met some of the moderators at bagos. It was a no-brainer as I offered them this site as a permanent home. Jess and Justin and the team have done a great job! In fact they give me too much credit. They are on the site constantly making sure new registrants get quick responses and making sure things are running smoothly with everyone. I appreciate their dedication as they work together so well. I also want to mention that there were several people that donated money to help pay for the site! Word got out that I was paying for things myself and immediately I started getting donations. That is so much appreciated!! With the money I am able to secure the webserver hosting and add needed modifications to the site. Hearing how much the site means to everyone really makes me smile. Thanks everyone! I hope you get as much out of this community as I have!

Ah! I will check on that.

Unfortunately the Like button if not compatible with the new update. I am checking for a fix or a replacement

Hi Everyone! Be on the lookout for a new design to the Widda.org website. The new look will be applied to everyone as there is nothing that is needed to be done to view it. Final testing is being done and I expect the new design to be activated by Sunday evening (3-13-16). Lewis

Hi Everyone, I want to apologize for the forum outage. I was doing some ground work for moving to a new server and was bit in the butt by bad advise from someone at GoDaddy. I made a change on the new server that took down the current server and did not realize the problem until I was in my car driving home and started receiving messages that the site was down. UGH! After calling GoDaddy support again, I was informed that returning the changes to the original settings could take up to 48 hours to take effect. I realize that would be a worst case scenario, but was frustrated with the seemingly fast take-down of the current site. Anyhow, the option to just switch to the new server was entertained since the Internet was already pointing to the new server. I did some testing and found that it was too soon to make the switch and made the changes to enable the original server. Then it was a waiting game for the site to be back up. Looking forward, we will need to switch to the new server at some point in the next month or two. This planned switch will be broadcast to everyone before it happens and I will enable the new server overnight so it will affect as few people as possible. Once again, I am sorry for the outage. Lewis

This is fixed! You can upload more pictures now.

Aww, love you too TFO! And YES! I have a site that the WGW widdas ordered t-shirts and accessories with the logo on it. I am checking to see if there is a better place that offers more options for everyone. I figured I could add a couple of dollars to the price to help fund this forum. I'll have an update for you soon! Lewis

Yeah Judah is truly gifted. He and his wife were a big help after my wife died. They babysat my youngest son when I went back to work and were the perfect family to watch him. He still begs to visit them and it has been years since they have babysat him. Anyhow, when I need artwork done, he is the guy I go to!

Hey HvnBound! Unfortunately facebook does not allow direct linking anymore. In the past it was a simple thing to do, but it is blocked now by facebook. I had to right-click the image on facebook and save it to my desktop, then upload it into the forum profile. Let me know if that answers your question. Lewis

Can anyone get me contact info for Lauren?? I really would like to get the youngwidow and ywbb domain names if they are going to let them go. Lewis

The "Like" button is now available!

Yes! It definitely was a collaborative effort with us at the Widdas Gone Wild Bago. We adopted the gesture as our "gang" symbol. I took it a step further and asked my good friend, Judah, at judahcreative.com to digitize our sign into a logo. He took our idea and came up with the heart with the crossed fingers to add to it. I loved it! Threw some cash at him and received the logo as my own. I am glad everyone likes it! And no, it is not a play on the word Wicca, To me, the heart represents the love we have for our widda family...the struggles that we help carry each other through...the many hugs given at bagos... Over all, the logo represents the bond that we have in our club that no one wants to be in. Thanks for calling attention to the logo! I am really glad that everyone likes it! Lewis

This forum has been created for young widow/ers (Widda) to express their grief in a safe, non-judgmental environment, while having the option to remain anonymous. Grief does not discriminate and affects those from all walks of life, thus this is meant to be a safe environment of acceptance and respect for those of all races, religions, and sexual orientation. This is a place to find others with shared experience that provides encouragement and the ability to give encouragement in return. The Young Widow Forum is not an organized support group and has no trained grief or crisis counselors. If you are in need of grief or crisis counseling, you should contact qualified professionals in your area. Likewise, if you need financial, tax or legal advice, you should consult with qualified professionals who can advise you appropriately given where you live. Every community has its own culture and boundaries. To share how you feel about content, we encourage you to use the Reactions (the little icons under every comment) to share your positive feedback with users. This will help reinforce the proper behavior which we expect by all community members. Here are some rules that we ask you to follow: Keep your posts relevant to the forum category. Please be respectful of others and don?t sweat the small stuff. We?re not all English majors. Please do not post any personal information (or photos) of yourself that you wouldn?t want to disclose to the public at large. Do not post hateful racist, homophobic, or illegal content. Do not post copyrighted material without proper attribution. Please do not use the forum for self-promotion, solicitation, or advertising. SPAM will not be tolerated. Please refrain from discussing illegal activities or sharing lewd photos. Rudeness, personal attacks, bullying, threats or inflammatory posts will not be tolerated. Do not question moderators in the open forum. Moderation can be stressful, use private messages to chat with moderators. In summary, use your common sense, treat others as you expect to be treated and help us build a great community experience for everyone.

Here are some tips and tricks on using this forum: Use the reactions to share how you feel about other?s comments. The most liked content shows up on the Best of page. Mention others. To let someone know you are talking about or too them, put the @ symbol before the username. They?ll get notified when you do. Update your notification settings. You?ll receive a notification if someone mentions you or posts to a discussion that you?ve bookmarked. You can set notifications from your edit profile page. Post a comment to someone?s Activity Feed on their profile page. Remember, these are comments can be seen by everyone. You can private message members too, or check your messages by going to your ?inbox? in your personal menu. Bookmark a discussion (click the star) to get notifications for new comments. You can edit notification settings from your profile. Check out the forum from your mobile phone. Just go to the forum URL in your browser - no need to download an app. Want to embed content? Our forum supports automatic embed for Twitter, Pinterest, Vine, YouTube, and Vimeo. Just paste in the url of the content, and we will do the rest. Markup your posts with simple HTML tags and preview your comment before posting. Choose titles for your posts that are clear and concise. Add a picture to your profile at your own discretion. To remain anonymous you can add an avatar or not upload a picture. Use the search before you ask a question, you might be surprised to find the answer. Most important of all, have fun and be kind to one another!