Meet Mary Gardella
Founder | Radiant Reclamation™ & Widows to Warriors™
Six years ago, my husband David died by suicide. Grief has walked beside me ever since. She doesn’t leave. Every day I feel his absence, and every day I practice living with it.
In the early days, the only thing that kept me standing was the connection to other widows who understood the unspeakable. I saw too many of them drowning in hopelessness, and I knew this couldn’t be the end of the story. That’s where Widows to Warriors Retreats and the Radiant Reclamation movement were born—from a refusal to let his death, or mine, be the final word.
Through healing circles, retreats, and my photography, I hold space for widows to rise, roam, and reclaim their lives. The camera becomes a mirror—reflecting not just survival, but the warrior spirit still burning beneath the scars.
I’m just a woman walking with grief, turning pain into purpose the only way I know how. I believe we are worthy of love, beauty, and possibility—even after the unimaginable. And I will not stop creating spaces that remind us of that truth.
Mary is a Photographer for Widows Reclaiming Life After Loss, a storyteller and a retreat host based in Portugal.
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