Patricia J. Koprucki’s life changed drastically when she lost her soul mate and husband of more than twenty-nine years. In addition to encouraging her on every personal level—exercise, appearance, health—he also mentored her business until the day before he went on life support. In SUDDENLY SINGLE at SIXTY she offers practical tips to women experiencing grief and to those ready and almost ready to re-enter Now. Written from a place of experience, this self-help book for female baby boomers empowers survivors with the encouragement and advice they’ll need to get back out there with self-confidence and savvy. With affection and humor, Koprucki tells what to expect and how to survive those first holidays, birthdays and anniversaries after loss of a soul mate. SUDDENLY SINGLE at SIXTY contains techniques to help women survivors replenish physical and spiritual strength; relearn how to live in the moment; negotiate with technology, doctors, and well-meaning friends; and navigate the tricky world of online dating all while honoring (without being tyrannized by) a soul mate’s memory.

An uplifting, witty and hilarious memoir about the road from the shock and despair of a sudden marriage break-up to a fabulous new life

An uplifting, witty and hilarious memoir about the road from the shock and despair of a sudden marriage break-up to a fabulous new life

After 35 years of marriage, Janie J suddenly found herself single and sixty.Would she be able to start over?Would she be able to handle everything on her own?Would she need a chiropractor after using the riding lawn mower?Would her new business be enough to survive on?Would she be able to find new friends?Would she get into shape without plastic surgery?Would she ever be happy again?Would she find a new love?This is a true and honest and often funny biographical account of Janie J's adventures, misadventures, and discoveries.Her life seemed to be falling apart but in the middle of rebuilding her finances, doubling down on her business, finding new friends, getting fit and yes, looking for love, Janie J kept her wit about her and more importantly, her sense of humor. Single and Sixty is a poignant, honest and funny look at one woman's quest to survive and then thrive after divorce later in life. Janie J writes like a friend who is willing to give you self-help advice in the form of sharing her own foibles and failings. This isn't a self-improvement book. It simply shows you how one woman applied herself toward motivating herself, building relationships, building back her self-esteem and even finding a bit of spiritual awakening.But this partial biography (it covers about four years of Janie's life) could also be the memoir and story of any woman who has found herself suddenly single through divorce, breakups or worse and is feeling lost. It's relatable and encouraging to know that someone else has had a similar experience and come through it to the other side.For a simple guide showing you EXACTLY how Janie J pulled herself together and began creating her best life, get your copy of "Live the Life You Have Imagined" and the "Live the Life You Have Imagined" companion journal.Visit her website at www.JanieJ.net for ongoing encouragement, stories about Janie's continuing journey and for her original, inspirational poetry.

A stressful, protracted divorce. A difficult, painful death of a beloved husband. And suddenly, after age 50, you’re on your own again. Your children have moved out, your parents are aging fast or deceased, your friends’ lives continue onward, seemingly unchanged. Being suddenly single after age 50 can be terrifying, but eventually it can also be liberating. It can be fraught with worry and decisions you’re unprepared initially to make, but it can also be a time to reevaluate, reestablish, and reinvent. It can be financially and emotionally unstable at times, but it can be the start of a new chapter, or the discovery of someone you didn’t know you were, or could become, after the grief of a loss so difficult. Long-time friends and authors Barbara Ballinger and Margaret Crane have a lot in common. Both lived in the same city for years. Both are writers. Both married their husbands right out of college. Both are mothers of grown children who have left home. And both had aging parents when these difficult journeys began. Both found themselves alone, husbands lost to divorce and death, two separate situations that were equally traumatic— for Barbara, a divorce that took four years to end, and for Margaret, a five-year, gut-wrenching siege of myriad cancers that ended in death. Barbara and Margaret struggled but discovered not only that their new lives were, indeed, worth living, but that the insight gleaned from their experiences could help other people in similar straits. The result is Suddenly Single After 50, an honest and riveting, yet funny and poignant guide that provides advice for those who find themselves divorced, widowed, or otherwise suddenly single just about the time they start getting those AARP cards in the mail and while many of their friends are gleefully discussing retirement plans and toasting milestone wedding anniversaries. Suddenly Single After 50 is told with authenticity, wit, and compassion. They discuss living alone, attending social events alone, eating by themselves, sleeping alone, walking and traveling alone, then how they also came to feel they were not alone, not really, with loyal friends and family. They share how their once right-sized houses suddenly felt empty, too big, and too full of stuff that no longer made sense. They write about all the legal and accounting woes that befell them. And they tell readers what it’s like to be over 50 and dating again—after decades out of that scene, which had changed in unfathomable yet often hilarious ways. Suddenly Single After 50 addresses what life is really like when it’s suddenly shaped as single. It helps readers understand the grief, frustration, and sadness alongside reawakening into the world. Anyone who finds themselves suddenly single in middle age and beyond--or knows someone who is--will find in these pages both advice and reflection, support, and a way forward.

Instant New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller! A powerful and unexpected memoir of family, faith, tragedy, and life's most important lessons. The day after future NBA superstar Chris Paul signed his letter of intent to play college basketball for Wake Forest, he received a world-shattering phone call. His grandfather, Nathaniel "Papa" Jones, a pillar of the Winston-Salem community where he owned and operated the first Black-owned service station in North Carolina, was mugged and ultimately died from a heart attack resulting from the assault. His funeral filled the largest church in the county, which held over one thousand people. He was sixty-one years old. The day after burying his grandfather, Chris was coping the best way he knew how: by playing basketball for his high school team. After pouring in shot after shot, his last attempt was an airball purposely flung out of bounds from the foul line before Chris exited the game. The next day, local news headlines declared that he fell six points shy of the statewide single game high school scoring record. But he accomplished exactly what he set out to do: scoring sixty-one points, one for each year of life lived by his grandfather. In Sixty-One, Chris opens up about life beyond basketball and the role his grandfather played in molding him into the man and father he is today. He’ll speak about the foundation of faith and family he built his life upon, what it means to be a positive light within your community and beyond, and the importance of setting the proper example for future generations. Most importantly, Chris will talk about his home, Winston-Salem, and the close-knit family and village that raised him to become one of the most respected leaders in all of sports.

Subtitle: learning to start over through the experience if others. Addresses the crises of facing the world alone due to death or divorce. A guide through various phases of change, pressure and decision-making during the period of aloneness after separation.