When We Were Widows Quotes

“I should’ve known then that you can’t always outrun your past.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“It was ironic that Jason and I had decided to have a baby in order to save our marriage. Yet, the journey itself threatened to kill it for good.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Sometimes we have to do things we’ve never done in order to grow. Because when you stop growing, you die.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“And some days, like today, my mind failed to protect me from the visceral memories of one of the most traumatic times of my life.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Grief, I’d learned, didn’t have a finish line. It was an endless journey. Some days the path was easy, and other days you’d be running perfectly fine and then, out of nowhere, you’d stumble, and the pain would come roaring back as if your loss had just happened.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Hold on. Did you think we were going to bond over dead husbands or something?”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Just because you say it in Spanish doesn’t mean it makes it less insulting.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Less than fifteen minutes later, the four of us were seated in Yesica’s dining room enjoying the delicious fruits of our combined labor.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Had I been with Benny for so long that I’d forgotten how to be someone other than his wife?”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“No one in this family shares anything unless someone else figures it out first or makes them say it. We’re Latinas. We don’t voluntarily talk about our feelings. Instead we hold it inside and carry grudges until we die.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Breaking things had just become my most favorite form of therapy.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“What’s the one thing you did this week that was just for you and it made you feel happy?”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“That meant if Mama Melda asked them to do something, they always said yes. That’s because the asking was just a formality. She was really telling them to do something. Only fools and strangers dared to tell her no.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Jason had died six months ago in a car accident. And although his death was tragic and sad, I didn’t want it to define me. I wanted to be thought of as more than just a pitiful young widow.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Mama was going to do what she always did: whatever she wanted.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“The last one stemmed from her belief that if you were late to worship God, then you risked him being late to answer your prayers.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Then he’d lost his father just before graduating from college. And even though he’d now lived more years without them than with them, he still missed both terribly.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Sometimes we have to do things we’ve never done in order to grow. Because when”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“The past is the past, Ana. The only thing you have the power to change is the present.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Our parents aren’t supposed to be perfect,” he finally said. “We just think they are because when we’re little, we need them to be.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“It was a superstition she believed in wholeheartedly, just like never putting your purse on the ground because you’d lose your money, or if you ate twelve grapes at midnight on New Year’s, then you’d have good luck for the next twelve months.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“No matter how old we get, we all need our mothers to take care of us again at some point. I would give anything to have my mama still with me.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“weight of everyone’s world. I”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“It’s true what they say about first daughters taking on the”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Habits can either save you or kill you.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Her instinct would always be to take care of her children and to say or do what she believed was best for us. The least I could do was take care of her in return and teach my kids to always give her the respect she didn’t just deserve, but had earned.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“Truth was, it took a lot for me to let go. I’d learned early on that coloring inside the lines earned you praise and respect. Being responsible and professional opened doors, especially in the corporate world, for someone who looked like me. I never wanted to give anyone a reason to doubt that I had things under control.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows

“That’s when I realized it wasn’t all some horrible dream. That morning I had been a wife. That afternoon I was close to becoming a divorcée. And by dinnertime, I was a widow.”
― Annette Chavez Macias, When We Were Widows