I had a woman on a trip a few years ago – I’ll call her Anne to protect her privacy.
She’d been married for 32 years. She and her husband had travelled all over the world together . Africa was always “their dream” for when they retired.
Then he died suddenly. Heart attack. No warning.
She was 64 and terrified.
She told me later that the hardest part wasn’t the grief – it was the guilt. The guilt of going to Africa without him. Of doing the thing they were supposed to do together.
“What if I love it?” she said. “What if I have this incredible experience and he’s not there to share it?”
I didn’t have an answer for her. I just listened.
Here’s what happened:
On the second night, around the campfire, she started talking about him. Really talking – not the polite “he passed away” conversation you have at home, but the real stuff. How they met. Their first trip together. The dreams they’d made.
The other women listened. Some cried with her. A few shared their own losses –divorce, death, estrangement.
By day five, she seemed lighter.
On day eight, she said something I’ll never forget:
“He would have wanted this for me. He would have pushed me to come even if he couldn’t. And I can feel him here. Not in a sad way. Just… I can feel him in the beauty of this place. In the fact that I’m finally doing it.”
She came on another trip the following year. Then she brought a friend.
Here’s what I want you to know:
If you’re waiting for the “right” time to do this – after the kids are older, after you retire, after you feel less guilty about spending money on yourself – that time might never come.
But May might be exactly the right time. Not because everything’s perfect, but because nothing ever is.
We have this tiny window – 6 women maximum, 5 spots left – where you could be one of them.
One widow. Maybe one divorcee. Maybe someone whose nest just emptied. Maybe someone who just needs to remember who they are.
You can find all the information you need about our upcoming Wild At Heart Expedition right here: https://www.blueskysociety.org/jwp-wild-at-heart-2026/
P.S. Anne told me something else after that first trip: “You better regret something you did than what you didn’t.” She’s right.
