“Nobody thinks about what it’s going to be like to be a widow,” she said. “You know it’s going to be bad; you imagine it’s going to be hard. But you don’t realize how life-shattering it is.”
Eventually she realized she needed to start being social again, but she said her friends and family struggled to understand what she was going through. The closest widows support group Vickers could find that was not focused on grief was in Sugar Land.
During her first visit, she met a fellow Cypress resident who ended up helping her start her own group. Angels of the Heart, a social and peer support group, launched in early 2019. As of October, the group's membership has grown to 10 members.
“You really have to learn how to put the pieces back together, and we’re all in different stages of putting those pieces back together,” she said. “Those people that are a stage ahead are helping the people that are a stage behind them, and it’s been so, so helpful.”
Vickers said she finds that women who join the group make instant friends as each woman shares a common bond. Many of the members are baby boomers and were once caretakers to their husbands who have died or children who have grown up and moved out on their own. Now they have an abundance of free time and nothing to fill it, Vickers said.
Angels of the Heart meets for lunch locally the first Tuesday of every month and sees a movie together the third Tuesday of every month. Vickers said she would eventually like to have a weekly group outing. As of now, there is no membership fee to join, she said.
As the holiday season approaches, Vickers said she wants to encourage Cypress-area widows to connect with the group to find comfort, friendship and support.
“I think these ladies have a lot to give, and we have a lot to give them,” she said.
Angels of the Heart
713-203-8016
