About Bridget Verhaaren

My memoir, STRONG, LIKE MY NAME, is the story of discovering who I am after the monumental loss of my husband, Rob.

At the age of 41, after fifteen years of out-of-state living, I was putting down roots and raising my three young children near extended family in Arizona. For twenty years, I had willingly braided my life into his; I sacrificed to help him achieve his educational, career and athletic goals.

Then, while competing in the longest cycling race in the US, Rob catapulted over a low guardrail sixty feet to the Snake River below and died.

I was forced to navigate Rob’s business and clients, make financial fortifications, battle the life insurance company, and deal with a potential lawsuit. After months of pity-eyes from people in my hometown, I packed my children for a summer vacation from which we never returned. I moved my family to an old cabin in the mountains of Utah where we lived for more than a year. No cell service. No landline phone. Woodburning stove. I skied, fished, bought and shot guns, drove fast, hunted elk, and went boating with my children. I also dated men ranging in age from 22 to 68.

STRONG, LIKE MY NAME (80,000 words) is a love story framed around honestly explored relationships, loss, faith, family, and self-acceptance. It will appeal to readers of Epilogue by Anne Roiphe, and The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet.

I remarried Dr. G. in 2014. Travel adventures with my eight children, including my five “bonus” (step)children, vie with skiing to be my primary passion. I reside in Outdoor Recreational Zion, i.e., the State of Utah. I am a fan of heli-skiing. I have a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University. I am currently attending the Vermont College of Fine Arts Creative Nonfiction MFA program.