I am glad you have a good support group. I am trying to find one, which is not easy here inHong Kong. In terms of rituals, I go to a garden. I used to wheelchair her there during her treatment. There are red roses there which she likes very much. I sit there for a while, crying, talking to her, praying, watering roses. I have been doing this daily for about 2-3 weeks now

I know it is good to keep in touch with all your grief group of friends.
It is good to be able to be face to face and be there for each other.
I am sure you are an encouraging person to be around.
You asked about rituals....Well I don't have specific rituals, however,
I make it a point of keeping my Ben's memory alive. Any chance I get I will have a story to tell about him. We were married for 42 years....Ben was larger than life...never a dull moment with Ben...he was full of exuberance, fun, people tended to gravitate toward him.....OH! boy, I miss him too too much it, hurts. My Perfect for me, husband......
Maybe that is my Ritual, to honour him what do you think?
Hugs.....Sandra

My husband's name is Ben too and sounds so much like yours.

Ritual.....I talk to his box every day and night. Can he hear me?

I had one of the ladies in the support group I attended a couple of weeks ago call me the other day. It was such a nice surprise....she is 7 years into her journey but told me I reminded her so much of what she was going through those first months.
It was nice to know I am not crazy in my feelings.

I'm not sure I have a ritual at this point. I used to kiss his picture every morning and night. I used to journal every day. These things are what worked back then. I guess now I live my life to the fullest and honor the memories we made. Sharon

I think I had too many rituals...since he worked midnights and I was always working we didn't see a whole lot of each other so was very easy for me to pretend it never happened..what I did do though that was special is I made a nice keepsake box for each of my 3 grandsons that they will get when they are older. Since I just got another one I will make him a box of stuff from me...I had also started a really nice photo story book ..I was scanning every photo we had and had writings around it...Its called The Story of Us....I have 3 volumes and the day he came home with the cancer news I stopped...I think its left off around mid 90s...one day maybe I will finish it ...I don't know I cant help it I don't like the ending

I keep her Facebook profile active and cleaned out a lot of the garbage she had in it (game request people). It's kind like a piece of her is still there. All her old posts & conversations, etc.

I am glad you found a great support group. I have one too. The group is for widow/widowers and has been such a help to me.

I have a ritual. I made a slide show to music of our happy special times. Most are of pictures of us together. I treasure them. The song I used for the slideshow is "Keep Me In Your Heart For A While". I miss him so. He will be in my heart forever.

My computer is full of all our pictures from trips etc so maybe I can put together a slide show of some sort as my screen saver...well when I am ready anyway..

I love all the ideas. I too put together a photo journal book, over 600 pictures from our dating years 1977 to 2013. We were married 29 years. After his death I labeled a section "Even Ever After" and had pictures of his garden being taken care, improvements in the house, going on trips with my daughter, etc. It took me over a year, That was one of my rituals. I took on some of his rituals, especially his neatness. I have to clear away clutter and other chores, because I hear him in my spirit.