Katherine Billings Palmer

Ten months after being diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, and four months after being pronounced in remission, Rick Palmer died unexpectedly as the result of a freak accident. His wife, Katherine, turned to writing to cope with her grief. I Wanted to Grow Old With You: A Widow's First Year of Grief in Poetry is a collection of poems from her first year of mourning. From the initial prose stream-of-consciousness musings to the transition to conventional poetry, each poem conveys the poignancy and pain resulting from the loss of the man she loved.