A screenwriter and author who detailed her family’s experience coping with her husband’s chronic illness in a memoir will be the guest speaker at an upcoming virtual talk.
Melissa Gould — whose screenwriting credits include Bill Nye the Science Guy, Beverly Hills 90210, Party of Five, and Lizzie McGuire — is the author of Widowish: A Memoir.
“Theirs was the quintessential love story,” according to a news release from Creative Aging Books and Ideas. “Melissa and her husband, Joel, met in the lobby of Atlantic Records, which was located on Los Angeles’ famous Sunset Strip. They bonded over their love of music, which in turn fostered a magnificent and outsized love and dedication to and for each other.”
After nearly 10 years of marriage, Joel began having trouble with his legs. One night, he came home early from his weekly basketball game and told Melissa, “My legs. They’re not working.”
He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), “but after several work-arounds and accommodations, life continued on in a somewhat manageable fashion for the couple and their daughter, Sophie. That is, until the night Joel got up from their kitchen table and collapsed onto the floor.”
Two months after Joel’s 50th birthday, he was rushed to the emergency department.
When his condition changed from critically ill to gravely ill, “Melissa went into a complete tailspin as to what to think or what to pray for.”
“I didn’t know what I was praying for anymore. Joel’s recovery? To what end? Joel was tired of living with MS. He was worried and living in fear of losing his dignity,” she said. “I wanted him whole. I wanted him as I had always known him — vibrant, alive, healthy.”
In Widowish, she recounts her and Sophie’s journey after Joel’s death in a way that is “poignant, raw, courageous and hopeful.”
“As she deals with her loss, grief, guilt and eventual return to a life of purpose and intent, Melissa examines what a widow looks like — a tragedy that happened to her a mere four days after her 46th birthday — so that readers experiencing the same kinds of situations can understand that tragedy and loss can happen at any age, and that it is possible to come back from it.”
The presentation will take place April 27 at 2 p.m. on Zoom.
Cece Scott’s review of Widowish: A Memoir is available at cecescott.com. There, registration for the free event can also be completed.
