From time to time we talk about the tragic events of 9/11. We have spoken to the 911 Families for a Secure America Foundation a few times about the tragic events. By now everyone has seen the events on some TV show a few times. But it is different for our next guest, author Abigail Carter. Abigail's husband, C. Arron Dack, was probably in Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the World Trade Center, when the planes hit on 9/11. Although she hoped he'd miraculously survived, when he didn't turn up the next day, she began her grieving. It is an honor to have on our show today, Abigail Carter. Now I want listeners to understand that this is not a show on the tragic events of 9/11 but a show on how to deal with grief and begin to move on with your life.

I want to tell you before we begin that our hearts here at Your Life Matters Show go out to you, your family and all of the families who lost loved ones on that tragic day. They will never ever be forgotten by all Americans and people throughout the world.

I grew up in Toronto where I met my husband Arron in 1986. We married in 1990 and then lived around the world – Brussels, London, Boston – before settling in Montclair, NJ where we were happily raising our two kids, Olivia, 6 and Carter, 2. And then one sunny September day, Arron went off to work, later calling me to tell me a bomb had gone off in The World Trade Center where he was attending a trade show. I never spoke to him again.

So at the ripe old age of 38, two years after that very fateful day, I began writing down everything I could remember about the two years I had just lived through. In 2005, I moved myself and our two kids to Seattle, WA in order to begin anew. I took a writing course and wrote some more and then by sheer happenstance wound up with my book, The Alchemy of Loss being published.

Like widow(er)s everywhere this is my unintentional life. Perhaps we all lead unintentional lives. I’m beginning to believe so.

My kids are now 14 and 10, happy, secure, funny. But every now and then, that roller coaster still mounts those steep inclines and plunges us into sheer drops. Nine years cannot change that.

My intention with this blog is to offer that light at the end of the tunnel for all those newly joining our ranks, and if not hope then reassurance that maybe that little bit of crazy they are experiencing is normal.