On November 27, 2021 — the Saturday after Thanksgiving — my husband Gary took his last breath. He was 56 and a quarter years old.

I was 54. And I had no idea how to be in the world without him.

Gary was my safe place. My reset. The person whose energy, just by being near mine, made everything feel like home. When he died, I didn't just lose my husband. I lost the ground beneath my feet.

Like so many widows, I found myself in a life I didn't recognize — one that asked more of me than I thought I could give. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I could barely walk up the stairs at work. I cried so hard every day that I got sick. I felt broken and unworthy and completely alone.

And then — slowly, through deep grief work and the guidance of a coach who had walked this road herself — I began to discover something.

I wasn't broken. I was grieving. And there is a difference.

I learned that I could carry my love for Gary and still keep living. That the ember of our love didn't go out when his breath did. That my job wasn't to leave him behind — it was to tend that ember, to keep it warm, and to let something new grow from the same warmth.

Not instead of my grief. From it.

That is what Ember & Bloom means. That is what I offer.

I spent more than twenty years as an instructional coach in schools — sitting beside teachers in their hardest moments, helping them see what was already working, and walking with them as they found their own way forward. I learned how to listen deeply, ask honest questions, and hold space for someone who feels lost.

That is the same presence I bring to coaching widows today.

I am not here to fix your grief or rush you through it. I am here to sit with you in it — in the real, messy, confusing parts — and help you find your footing again.

One small step at a time.

If you are trying to figure out what life looks like now, I would be honored to walk beside you.

Gladys Jean Ullstam
Certified Life Coach and Gary's Widow