I Like Imagining My Husband’s Death

Jennifer Barnett
5 min readFeb 1, 2022

It’s good practice

No husbands were harmed in the telling of this story.

I like to think about what would happen if my husband dies. I do this because my husband dying is my worst nightmare, something I’m terrified of but know is inevitable, but the prospect of his death is so utterly paralyzing to me I think about it every day as a way to slowly inoculate myself so I’m ready when the time comes.

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Jennifer Barnett

Former managing editor of The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, Redbook, and Elle. Now I’m writing. Expat in Amsterdam.