I just found this thread. My DH passed away suddenly in Sept 2021. We honeymooned at Disney in 1976. We brought our kids several times. Then as empty nesters we went once a year in May. Our last trip together in May 2021 was great. I went back in Oct 2022 with my sons and grandkids. It was bittersweet and I cried on rides he loved. Now I have a solo trip planned for this Fall. Not sure how it will go but reading this thread gives me hope.
Let me try and tell this quickly. After years of traveling with my wife and children, plus escorting some people that otherwise wouldn't have been able to go, my wife left without any warning. After 29 years that I thought was going along well, she just decided she didn't want to be married anymore. I won't go into what was going on at the time except to say, it wasn't someone else, and not any scandal on either side.
Anyway, my kids were both married by then and I was in a bad place anyway and that was just one more thing piled on. I think it was then shortly into the first year after the divorce was final that I took a solo trip to WDW. I have to admit that when I first got there I found myself just sitting on a bench (when they had them) and thinking about all those wonderful family times at WDW. Talk about your pity party, it was full bore. I thought about just going someplace else where the memories weren't quite so strong, but then remembered that WDW was my happy place. A place where I could put my problems on a shelf and just enjoy the place.
So, there I was on the bench and I remembered the Carousel of Progress. An attraction that we went to on our very first trip. At the time the song was "The best time of your life", and it was indeed. Since then the song was changed to "Great big beautiful tomorrow". I went on the ride and suddenly it struck me that I didn't want to sit around the rest of my life as if it were over and started to think that if I made some changes in my life now I could have that beautiful tomorrow too. I have made at least 16 solo trips to WDW, one to
Disneyland and one to Disneyland Paris since then. Right now the system, charges and my health have pretty much cut out that line of enjoyment and am down to quieter things now. (drat)
I went out after that and re-did all that rides and shows that were connected to family and just made them mine and a change for new albeit different types of memory's that centered around me alone. I chatted with kids and their families while in queues and saw how amazed they were that I was riding alone (quote) "At my age".
I went home at the end of my trip and changed a lot of thing including my job, my outlook and in return got a new hope for my future. I've been pretty much flying high ever since then. Now I cannot guarantee that you would have the same result but remember that life does indeed go on and we have to take our enjoyment wherever we can, while we can and what better place was there than WDW..
The money that was supposed to go to our trip fell through. I made the mistake of disobeying a major parent in ng rule: Dont tell your kids anything about something fun until it's in the bag. Once I put the deposit down I was so sure it would all work. So now they're super bummed. 
