Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Valentine’s Day is a time of love and joy for many couples, but it can be a particularly difficult and emotional time for those whose spouses have passed away.

Franklin-based nonprofit The Widow Walk is seeking to be a source of joy and encouragement to those facing that difficulty by hosting, on Friday, Feb. 21, the first annual Walk of Love Gathering, which will honor and celebrate the area’s widows and widowers.

The gathering will be free for widows and widowers and will be held from 6-8:30 p.m. at The Hubs Vine, which is located at 1459 Armory Drive in Franklin. 

As a flyer from The Widow Walk states, “This fun-filled event will include dinner, live music and surprises.”

USA Today-bestselling author Nancy Naigle, who is herself a widow, will be the special guest speaker.

Widows and widowers can RSVP for the event by calling or texting 757-777-6705. Additional family members may purchase tickets at www.TheWidowWalk.org/walk-of-love or by calling or texting 757-777-6705.

As noted on its website, The Widow Walk is a nonprofit with the following mission, purpose and vision:

• The mission of equipping widows on a path together toward a new start with a new finish;
• The purpose to create a national community of widows empowering one another; and 
• The vision to develop eternally minded resources focused on grief education, expression and empowerment.

The website also notes that Micah Nowell Dillon, who is a speaker, author, artist, songwriter and musician, is founder of The Widow Walk. 

In a Jan. 21 interview, Dillon noted that she established the nonprofit in April 2024.

“It’s basically a resource for widows and widowers here locally,” she said. “There are three components to The Widow Walk, and it is grief education, grief expression and grief empowerment.”

She noted the organization began hosting gatherings in the fall, seeking to bring together people from different seasons of widowhood and widowerhood as well.

“It is for widowers too, because there really isn’t any support for them, and so as I’m crossing paths with them, I am inviting them,” she said.

Dillon acknowledged that everyone coming to the gatherings has been hesitant to do so because of the premise, but she emphasized the importance of fellow widows and widowers offering support for each other as they progress on their journeys.

“It’s about coming to the table, creating a safe place for people to come and gather that are going through a similar walk,” she said. “And part of the (Widow Walk) website says that we want to lean on each other so that we can glean from the wisdom of the other. And so some people may feel like, ‘Well, I’ve been a widow for 15 years. What do I need to come for?’ We need you there because of the wisdom of your 15 years of walking through this journey.”

As she spoke on grief expression, Dillon shared details from her own journey, which she said she will have been walking for eight years this June.

“I became a young widow at 36 years old,” she said.

As noted on The Widow Walk’s site, “In 2017, Micah woke up to find her husband of 13 years, Ben, unconscious in the shower. He had died of a heart attack. As the mother of two young children, Micah had to continue life without her husband and rediscover her identity, purpose and worth.”

Dillon noted in the Jan. 21 interview that the passing of her husband was a sudden loss, but her grief did something she did not expect.

“It unlocked me creatively,” she said. “Grief I didn’t know could do that, but evidently it did in my case, so it made me curious about the human experience, it made me curious about emotional intelligence, it made me curious about our physiological component, it made me curious about the neurological component.

“I don’t know if that’s normal or not, so I kind of feel like I was walking through some type of training and observing the human experience at the same time,” she said.

She noted that it allowed her to write and journal and create content that she is able to share, in part, through the work she does now with The Widow Walk.

“It really brings me joy to have something of original content to give someone, and so if you come to visit me, you never leave empty handed,” she said.

Dillon described grief empowerment as hearing from other widows and widowers, which happens at The Widow Walk-hosted gatherings, and it happens on the Mondays with Micah weekly video log that Dillon creates, talking with other widows and widowers about their stories. The vlog can be accessed at www.TheWidowWalk.org/.

“This Widow Walk is about encouraging people to believe again, to dream again and to know that we’re better together, that they don’t have to walk through this journey alone, that there is a support group here for them,” Dillon said. “My hope is that we will have every county here accounted for, that we’re checking on each other.”

She hopes one day to see The Widow Walk expand to have chapters across Virginia and far beyond, understanding that there are widows and widowers in need of support everywhere.

Dillon indicated that the first annual Walk of Love Gathering will be another opportunity for other widows and widowers to encourage and support each other and hopefully have a good time.

“(Valentine’s Day is) just one of the emotional holidays to walk through,” she said, “and so this is part of the creativity for this Widow Walk for me is to override hard days with some goodness and some fun.”

For more information on The Widow Walk, visit TheWidowWalk.org/.