New Book by Widowers Thomas Maschhoff and Charles Couch Tackles the Practical Side of Grief

Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk

Thomas Maschhoff and Charles Couch have written "When Do I Change the Sheets?: A Guide for New Widowers Learning to Live Again," a book that grew out of a friendship the two men never expected to need. Their wives died within two days of each other, and in the aftermath, the neighbors found themselves facing not just grief but the smaller, stranger problem of how to run a household alone. The book takes its title from one of those questions.

According to the announcement, that question became a doorway into harder conversations about loss and what comes after it. The authors describe the book as part memoir, part survival manual, built on conversations with widowers across the country rather than on either man’s story alone.

Maschhoff spent more than three decades as a licensed mental health counselor and founded an Employee Assistance Program that, per the announcement, served tens of thousands of employees nationally; he has also written three psychological thrillers. Couch flew for seventeen years, with time in the Navy, corporate aviation, and a major airline. The publisher frames the pairing as one of clinical grief expertise alongside someone practiced at staying steady under pressure.

The book’s scope, as described in the announcement, runs from the seven stages of grief to more concrete territory: what to do with a dead spouse’s closet, how to relearn routines that used to be automatic, how to recognize scammers who target the newly widowed, and whether to consider new relationships at all. Each chapter reportedly closes with what the publisher calls "Widower’s Advice," practical takeaways rather than general comfort.

"We wrote this book because we couldn’t find it when we needed it most," the authors said in the announcement. "Our hope is that every widower who reads it knows they’re not navigating this alone."

The book is published through Christian Faith Publishing and is available at bookstores and through major online retailers including Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play, and Barnes and Noble.

Studio CarryOnHarry doesn’t often see a grief book built around a question this small and this specific — that’s precisely what makes the premise worth a look.

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