cottonwood your story reminded me of this book which I would like to recommend- I have gotten much inspiration and hope from rereading it over the years.
IN 1958, summer's end, the writer's brother-in-law was killed when his commuter train plunged off a New Jersey bridge into Newark Bay. Thirty-six hours later his widow died at the age of 45 of cancer, leaving four orphan boys. An awful believe-it-or-not is compounded by the circumstances of this book's publication: Jane Vonnegut Yarmolinsky died late last year from the same kind of cancer that killed her sister-in-law. ''Angels Without Wings'' was completed by her publisher, who converted three-quarters of the manuscript from third to first person, so as to agree with the final part. 'A WILDLY IMPROBABLE GANG OF NINE' - New York Times