Amanda Kloots on why she hates the term 'widow': 'I am not a glass half empty kind of girl'
Amanda Kloots has rejected the term “widow,” more than one year after the death of her husband, Broadway star Nick Cordero, following his battle with the coronavirus.
The actress went on Instagram to share a photo of the word with a red line through it, indicating that it no longer represented her experience. She began the caption of her post, “Did you know that the Indo-European root meaning of the word widow means ‘be empty?’ Be empty. ‘Be,’ in case you forgot, is a verb, an action word. I have to identify myself with a word that means to stay ‘empty’ — no wonder I hate saying the word! I am not a glass half empty kind of girl!”
Kloots shared that the widows she knows are doing all they can to live lives that are “overflowing in presence and gratitude.”
“I don’t know how you go about changing a word, but I propose a word that means something more hopeful,” she continued. “A word that gives us strength and power! A word that is optimistic in a time when we need it most!”
In fact, Kloots, who is mom to her and Cordero's two-year-old son Elvis, has a word in mind: “Renovare,” from the Latin word meaning to renew or restore.
“I’m not sure if it’s the right word, but it sure defines me more than ‘be empty,’” she noted. “So here’s to my fellow renovares who are striving everyday to renew, reinvent and refill their cup!”
Followers, some of whom also lost loved ones, applauded Kloots for finding a more optimistic choice.
One wrote, “My husband died in 2019. I don’t feel empty, I feel more empowered than ever. I do things I never thought I’d be doing. I just painted my family room — a big thing for me.”
Another shared, “Wow. I didn’t even know this. As a fellow widow — my husband died in May of 2020 — I am definitely in a state of renewal. Thank you for sharing this.”
A third shared another term associated with grief that needs to go.
“I also hate the term ‘movingn on,’” they noted. “I prefer ‘moving forward.’ You don’t move on from loss. We just move forward, God willing.”
In a July episode of The Talk, Kloots spoke about how she is looking towards the future and starting to date again.
"It's all wonderful. It's wonderful people I'm meeting, and it’s been a great process so far," she said. "But I'll just say it's very hard, without getting into too many details. It's very hard."
