Rob, my beloved husband of 17 years, died in a hiking accident in July 2019. I never expected my life would look like this — widowed with four children to raise alone. I can tell you all of the things I was before my husband’s death — a homeschool mom, a storyteller and fundraiser for nonprofits, a teacher. But grief is a powerful force, and it’s swiftly changing the contours of my entire life.
Hi, I’m Clarissa, and I’m a widow.
The old landscape is eroding, but I don’t believe all is lost. I trust that, in God’s hands, grief can create something beautiful, even if its beauty is forever a stark reminder of what is absent. God is present even in life’s darkest hours. As we walk with grief, Jesus walks beside us.
We are not alone. We are loved beyond measure.
Today, I’m a remarried widow with a blended family of nine. I understand childhood and adolescent grief (I’ve parented with grief through almost all of the developmental stages!), the complexities of love after loss, and the ways that grief continues to shape a life as we grow forward through the years. All of my work is birthed from this rich, painful constellation of experience.
These days, I am an award-winning writer and podcaster who helps bereaved people find flourishing after loss. My writing appears in Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, RELEVANT, Modern Loss, Grief Digest and more. I cohosted Christianity Today’s “Surprised by Grief” podcast and produced CT’s flagship news analysis podcast, “The Bulletin,” while executive producing “The Russell Moore Show.” I am a frequent guest at events, on podcasts, radio shows, and television.
I write weekly about new life after loss in my online publication, Hand in Hand.
My debut book, Beyond the Darkness: A Gentle Guide for Living with Grief and Thriving After Loss, was a best-selling new release in 2022. I’ve since published the Beyond the Darkness Devotional, Hurt Help Hope: A Real Conversation about Teen Grief and Life after Loss with my daughter Fiona, and Hope Comes to Stay, a children’s picture book.
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Clarissa Moll is an award-winning writer and podcaster who helps bereaved people flourish after loss. Clarissa’s debut book, Beyond the Darkness: A Gentle Guide for Living with Grief and Thriving After Loss, was a best-selling new release in 2022. She is the author of the Beyond the Darkness Devotional, Hurt Help Hope: A Real Conversation about Teen Grief and Life after Loss, and Hope Comes to Stay. Her writing and podcasting have won numerous awards from the Evangelical Press Association, and Hope Comes to Stay was honored as a 2026 Christian Book Award finalist.
Clarissa’s writing appears in Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, RELEVANT, Modern Loss, Grief Digest and more. She co-hosted Christianity Today’s “Surprised by Grief” podcast and produced Christianity Today's flagship news podcast, "The Bulletin.” She executive produced “The Russell Moore Show.”
Clarissa is a remarried widow and lives with her large blended family in the Boston area.
