Love You, Mean It: A True Story

I was truly moved by this book. I initially wasn't going to purchase it as I thought it might be too depressing. Not at all! What a beautiful testimony to their spouses and to their friendship with each other. Makes you appreciate every girlfriend you have! GREAT BOOK!

I would suggest anyone who has lost a spouse read this wonderful book. These beautiful, unselfish women have shared so many of their heartbreaking memories. They are wise beyond their years and brave beyond words. Just to be able to know that the feelings widows have are OK and we are allowed to grieve at our own pace and heal when we are ready is such a comfort. Thank you Patti, Claudia, Julia and Ann for helping anyone who reads your story feel a little less lost in this journey we so unwillingly find ourselves on.

Love You, Mean It is a remarkable book; a loving tribute to four men who died on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center, written by their widows in alternating first person and group narrative. More than that, relevant beyond the annual commemoration of 9/11 events, and not limited to those directly affected in that tragedy, Love You, Mean It is four separate, very personal experiences of grief in one amazing story of friendship, strength and survival in the aftermath of unimaginable loss. I cried from the very first pages, and all the way through -- and I couldn't put the book down. I think most of us can, and always will, remember our personal 9/11 experience. September 11, 2001, when those towers fell and we began to realize what had happened, what was happening, it was a national experience of tragedy: shock, loss, fear, grief, anger. In Love You, Mean It, we experience four even more vivid personal recollections of those moments, when these women lost their husbands, and the aftermath -- days, weeks, months, years now -- on a very personal level. Jeremy "Caz" Carrington, Tom Collins, Bart Ruggiere, and Ward Haynes, by all accounts, lived live to the fullest. Their widows met almost a year after the tragedy, and discovered friendship, support and consolation they had not been able to find from well-meaning friends and family who suffered with them, but could not truly understand their grief, the way the other widows could. The WC (Widow's Club) began meeting regularly, traveling together each year to recover from the difficult anniversaries and commemoration events. These are amazing women, heartbreaking stories, yet truly inspiring. This is a book worth reading, celebrating, and sharing, in honor of the 5th anniversary of 9/11, and well beyond. -- Sherri Caldwell, Humor Columnist & Reviewer at RebelHousewife.com Co-Author, The Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss!

Love You, Mean It: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Friendship is the story of four young women. All happily married, all in the prime of their lives, all widowed by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and all unable to find someone who understands exactly what they're going through inside... In spite of the support of family, friends and well wishers what they really needed was kindred spirits, someone who was going through what they were going through and that was what they found in each other, someone who knew. Together, "The Widows Club" cried, suffered, struggled, and moved forward. And then they decided to let us share it with them... Not knowing any of this, I bought the book on a whim and when I got it home, I opened it to flip through, just a quick glance, then I'd read it later... I didn't put it down until I had finished it, at around 4 o' clock in the morning. In the hours that had passed I had laughed with this book. I cried with this book. I learned about the women and "the boys". I went along on first dates and to weddings. I felt the fear of seeing those first moments of 9/11 on TV and then the knowing that something terrible had happened... And through it all, I felt extremely lucky to have been allowed to be a part of the journey that Patricia, Julia, Claudia, and Ann shared in their memoir. This is an amazing book. It's the story of true friendship and is an amazing tribute not just to the beloved husbands who were murdered that day, but to the wonderful women who were left behind.

After receiving my copy of Love You, Mean It, I stopped everything else in my life to sit down and read about how September 11, 2001 changed the lives of these 4 special women. I didn't stop reading until the last page was finished.. Well organized and written, I read account after account of how the Widow's Club (WC) coped with the trauma that appears so suddenly after lives are suddenly interrupted. The women who wrote this book were linked together after the World Trade Center was attacked and after reading their many stories, it was understood by this reader that the love and support that they received from each other was absolutely instrumental in the preliminary stages of emotional and mental repair after the death of a loved one. Hearing about the love each WC member had for their spouse, the feelings and emotions and heartbreak after "the boys" were killed and the steps taken to repair their lives was incredible.. It made me focus on those friends that I have recently lost and made me understand that my feelings after these losses have been experienced and felt deeply by others. If you have ever had someone, so special in your life, taken from you, read this book.. If you want to be better prepared on how to deal with the loss of life and all the intrinsic feelings that are a result, it is a must read. LUMI is a guidebook detailing the accounts of four women who have cried, coped with internal and external forces, questioned their own existances and somehow, found the strength to forge ahead and continue on.. the reader will understand through the written words of this book, that you can too. To quote from the last 2 sentences in the book.. "Make the decision to live. It would be wrong not to." Thanks Patty, Julia, Ann and Claudia for sharing these very special stories.