Solidarity Community Federal Credit Union’s 13th annual car, truck & bike show is Saturday, June 10th! Are you coming? The first 50 people signed up will receive a Solidarity car show t-shirt, and there are only15 left! Sign up today so you don't miss out! https://www.solfcu.org/event/solidaritys-annual-car-truck-bike-show-id-20?fbclid=IwAR2HLnToqmtzjBPOab2aU4hJYG1XYmY3ryeK5nPnXSojmZFLe8vyGRN-KlI
Being a widow is not the end. It is a season in a woman’s life for some. Finding a purpose after losing a husband is the path to a new beginning. For Sunah Flores-Guillaume, that purpose is to help widows find their path through Widow’s Purse, a new non-profit support group.
Flores-Guillaume found herself widowed in 2017. Her husband passed unexpectedly, and initially all she thought she had was pain. For nearly five years, she struggled to recover from her loss.
“When I became a widow, all I knew widows to be was they were older,” said Flores-Guillaume. “That made me so angry. I felt alone. I felt like, ‘God, why would you take my husband at the age of 50? Why are these women able to live with their husbands, and I'm alone here?’ But He showed me I'm not alone. He started bringing women my age to me. And through their friendship, I knew I'm not alone. I'm not the only one.”
The healing came, and with it a calling emerged: help others through their pain.
“It's actually a thing that God called me to do,” said Flores-Guillaume. “When we go through pain, when we go through trauma, when we go through things in life, the purpose for that is to get to know Him better, but also to be able to use that hurt and help somebody else.”
Flores-Guillaume’s breakthrough moment came last year as she sat in a restaurant in Peru. Her pastor had just died, and his widow was in need of support.
“God showed me that I was supposed to step up for his wife,” said Flores-Guillaume. “As I was eating at the restaurant, they were playing Christian music. I asked the owner, ‘Have you ever had worship here? Because I lead worship.’ She was really interested, and the next time I went to the restaurant, she flagged me down and said, ‘Yes, you can do this, but only if it benefits somebody.’”
Flores-Guillaume knew right away that God had placed an opportunity in front of her. She held a worship night at the restaurant and raised funds for her pastor’s widow. Before long, she found other widows and brought them together at the restaurant. Widow’s Purse became a reality.
“We talked about whether it was beneficial for us, and the answer was yes,” said Flores-Guillaume. “Since then, we've been meeting once a month, and on June 24, we'll be celebrating our first year.”
Widow’s Purse grew modestly. It now has about 10 widows who meet regularly, with a few more who come and go as they need.
“We do have a diverse group of widows, including a couple in their 70s,” said Flores-Guillaume. “Widowhood affects all demographics. We have several races represented as well.”
Flores-Guillaume recently relocated the group to The Gilead House in downtown Kokomo, and now they are going public with their ministry.
But it’s not just widows sitting in a circle for two hours and sharing their grief. Widow’s Purse is designed to bring support and resources to its participants.
“In the first hour we bring professionals with knowledge in relevant areas that we need,” said Flores-Guillaume. “For instance, we've had a financial advisor. We've had a nurse. We've had grief professionals. My background is in design, so I lead painting. We learn from the professionals, but also, I believe they walk away learning a little bit about widows.
“In the second hour, we open up amongst ourselves and our guest to express what we need to say, ask questions, or just to cry and laugh.”
Part of the mission of Widow’s Purse is reaching out to widows and offering support. It might be something as simple as a small gift to let the woman know they are not alone; that someone is thinking of her. It might be an act of service for her. It might be connecting her to needed resources and services.
“I also want to be a source of help,” said Flores-Guillaume. “Widow’s Purse helps widows validate the experience of grief, connect to community, and live with purpose. Those three steps can happen together or one after another. Validating the grief is huge because we understand each other. We create our own community of helping each other, listening to each other.
“Then, when we bring in professionals, they bring us resources that we need, but they go forth knowing that we exist. And when they meet a widow, they can let them know about our community.”
The third step, living with purpose, is the hardest part. Flores-Guillaume knows that everyone has a purpose. For a widow, finding it can be difficult, she said.
“There are a lot of changes that happen because when the husband is no longer one with you, your identity is out the door,” said Flores-Guillaume. “We need to destigmatize the word, ‘widow’ because typically we only think of widows as those poor old women.
“If we look at it through biblical eyes, widows are mentioned with positive characteristics. Look at what Ruth did. Look at what Tamar did. Things were promised to her and were taken away. Look at the widow with the two mites who gave everything. So many times in Scripture, widows are thought of as positive characters, but we tend to only think of the hurt that happens in the first years.
“That is a season of a widow's life, but there's a rest of her life. Let's help her get to the rest of her life. And we do that by educating the public. We teach. We can bridge the gap. And through resources, we can help widows find a job. We can help her in different ways through the community. And we can help her find her new purpose.”
Widow’s Purse meets once a month, always on a Wednesday. While the meeting doesn’t yet meet on a particular Wednesday in each month, as the group becomes more organized and continues to grow, a more static schedule will emerge, Flores-Guillaume said.
The next meeting of Widow’s Purse is set for June 24 in Foster Park in downtown Kokomo. As the first-year anniversary of the group, it will be a celebration.
“Several churches are coming together, and we're going to do a worship event,” said Flores-Guillaume. “That's how it started in the first place. We're going to honor that. We're going to do it through worship.”
Widow’s Purse currently is in the process of obtaining a 501c3 non-profit designation, and it is looking for donations to help provide support to widows. For additional information about the organization or to donate, visit Widow’s Purse on Facebook or email widowspurse1@gmail.com.