Little did I know that my husband had just eaten his last family dinner with us.

That a few short hours later I would wake to him having a heart attack in our bed.

That I would be frantically pounding on his chest, administering CPR, until the paramedics arrived, while our three children – ages 15, 5, and 17 months – slept peacefully in their own beds.

I thought my husband, Josh, was in good health. We lived a great life. It wasn’t overly lavish, but we traveled often and had just purchased our dream home ten months earlier.

When my husband Dennis died, and I didn’t know what I didn’t know about being a widowed parent, one of my first stops in the hunt for information was Amazon.

I mean, who hasn’t headed over there to type in a few words about whatever problem they need to solve or whichever information they need to learn, in hopes that just the right book will appear?

Eight years ago, I couldn’t find that book.

But now there’s a terrific book that covers exactly the sort of stuff I was looking for back then. I was thrilled when someone at Penguin Random House reached out to see if I would like to speak with Drs. Elena Lister and Michael Schwartzman about their book Giving Hope: Conversations with Children About Illness, Death, and Loss.

Everyone’s concerned about loneliness these days.

The US Surgeon General is talking about it.

My friend Allison Gilbert is writing a book with Dr. Ruth about it.

It seems that, as a society, we are collectively feeling more alone than ever.

Widowed parents won’t be surprised to hear this. I frequently hear from listeners of the Widowed Parent Podcast that they don’t know anyone else in their neighborhood, school community, or personal circle who is widowed and is now raising their kids or teens alone.

If this sounds like you, you should know: There are a lot of us. It’s why I pulled the voices of 48 widowed moms and dads into my latest book, “Widowed Parents Unite: 52 Tips to Get Through the First Year, from One Widowed Parent to Another.” I wanted you to hear directly from fellow widowed parents, and to know that you aren’t alone.

But: It’s one thing to begin feeling a little less alone, and another thing entirely to move toward actually being a little less alone.

For that, I’ve got some tips – beginning today with this: Attend Camp Widow.