Sylvia and joanne are both members of a support group for new widows. sylvia has been deeply religious for most of her adult life. she prays daily and attends weekly services. joanne is not religious. both women seem equally devastated by the unexpected deaths of their husbands. on the basis of what you know of the women, what can you predict about how they will recover from their losses?

The loss of a lost one, especially one as meaningful as a husband, can be devastating and even harmful for anyone. What will make a difference on whether the person will be able to pull through, or not, are two things, two inner, two external: personal strength, given by a person´s personality qualities and belief system, and the second, the cultural and social bases that the person has, meaning, support networks, socialization, religious beliefs and family.

Given the case of Sylvia and Joanne, although both women have taken the death of their loved ones very hard, and given that we do not have any further information on them except that one has a belief system based on religion, and the other doesn´t, we can predict that Sylvia counts with two factors, mentioned above, that will help her heal much faster than Joanne, even if both women may find that relief at some point. Sylvia has the strength of inner belief boosted by religious beliefs, which provide columns on which she can lean to understand what happened, make sense of it, and thus heal. And two, she also will have access to a broader network of support, because religious groups tend to become some of the strongest networks for people.  

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