Driving Solo: Dealing With Grief and the Business of Financial Survival - Softcover

Yes, you—and only you—are in charge of major decisions regarding wills, trusts, attorneys, taxes, budgets, Social Security, insurance ... and on and on. And while you’re drowning in paperwork, you’re also drowning in grief. It’s an overwhelming, brutal double-whammy.

Susan Alpert has been exactly where you are. When Larry, her husband of 46 years passed away after a devastating illness, she went through all the stages of grief, depression, confusion, and just plain misery you or someone you love may be feeling right now.

In Driving Solo, Dealing with Grief and the Business of Financial Survival, she chronicles her journey from hearing that her husband has a life threatening disease, to the day he died, through hitting rock-bottom, to ultimately redefining herself and regaining control over her life.

Despite having owned and operated multi-million-dollar businesses, Susan was completely unprepared for what she now calls “The Business of Grief.” What do you file first? To whom do you reach out for help? Who do you trust? Which government and financial institutions do you need to notify, and when? And how do you manage these responsibilities when you can barely get out of bed in the morning?

The book is both a love story and a tale of survival. The bonus is that in a practical, directed method Susan shows the reader how one can get through the aloneness, fear and sense of feeling completely adrift. This is the lifeline you have been looking for.

The first part of the book will help you validate your sanity, the second part, the step by step manual, will save your financial life.

Susan, a successful businesswoman, educator, and serial entrepreneur, lost her husband of 46 years to leukemia in 2008 and found herself drowning in a sea of paperwork that only compounded her grief. Believing that no one else should have to face the confusing legal and financial obligations of loss alone, she created her step-by-step methodology, as well as her first book, Driving Solo—a combination of the business and emotional journeys that come with the death of a spouse.

Susan is the founder of several companies, including Motivation Resources; International Travel Incentives, Inc.; The Left Handed Complement; numerous focus groups including “Soaring in Your Sixties”; and most recently her own consulting firm.

Susan has a Masters of Science in Psychology and Education, and impressive experience in the fields of negotiation, finance, international services and business. She is dedicated to helping others regain control over their lives during this most raw and distressing time.