In The Curated Woods

About the Book

Ute Heggen’s husband revealed a shocking truth: he’d started a secret life and no longer identified as male. Ute, a mother of two young sons, thus became a grass widow, a woman whose husband, during a personal crisis, forged ahead into opposite sex identification. In this poignant chronicle, illustrated with fifty original nature photographs, Ute Heggen reveals the stinging betrayals, recent trends of mother erasure, and as well, sweet remembrances of her young sons’ childhoods. As she writes this memoir, Ute plants and weeds, finding ultimate healing in the curating of her beloved woods and gardens. In the Curated Woods: True Tales from a Grass Widow is a powerful narrative of modern life and natural beauty that gives voice to women in all walks of life. Ute Heggen tells further true tales of women discovering their voices again at uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com. “Ute's story is one of unimaginable gaslighting and heartbreak; it shines a glaring light on the financial, emotional, and societal repercussions of becoming a trans widow …” —Isabella Malbin, founder of Whose Body Is It? We see a woman, a mother, facing and finding herself, overcoming. One feels the life undone, yet through a trial of the self, understanding. Ute Heggen’s tales retrieve the light from the darkness. Donovan Cleckley, writer, womenarehuman.com

About the Author

Ute Heggen, a trained early childhood specialist, taught in public school and other settings for more than twenty-five years. After three decades in Brooklyn, New York, Ute purchased a small wooded parcel in the Hudson Valley and began a new life of gardening. Ute Heggen's articles about ex-wives and other family members affected by their husband's, children's or sibling's cross-sex ideation appear at uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com. Today the mother of two adult sons is a citizen scientist. Ute's specialization is violet cultivation, for great spangled fritillary butterflies, which do not migrate, but overwinter locally. Ute urges all to "Live, love, plant!"