A Little Bit About Me
My name is Wend Norris, and I tend to juggle many titles and jobs, but somehow, they seem to blend together to create this incredible life that God has given me. I am a master chaplain, certified grief educator, and 30-year veteran of the fire service whose work centers on healing, resilience, and hope in the wake of tragedy. I specialize in disaster and mass casualty response. And, as the founder of the Texas Line of Duty Death Task Force, I have supported countless families and first responder agencies following line-of-duty deaths and suicides of their first-responder loved ones, offering compassionate care rooted in lived experience. On Thanksgiving weekend in 2023, I lost my husband, Chief John Norris, in the line of duty. John served with the Houston Fire Department and the Forest Bend Fire Department for over 30 years, prior to his death.
I have written articles for first responder and fire service industry publications, developed a peer support curriculum for Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), and share reflections on grief, faith, and renewal through my personal writing and blogs.
Travel Writing
For many years, my husband and I shared a deep love for travel and adventure. As a matter of fact, we actually met while traveling! I was originally from California, and he was from Texas. We both happened to be traveling to Salt Lake City, Utah, to ski. This is where we met, fell in love, and married a year later! We also met our daughter through travel, in a roundabout sort of way. We traveled to China to adopt her, adding travel experiences along the way. It seemed as if travel was destined to be a building block in the foundation of our marriage and family.
Those journeys shaped our family and deepened our connection to each other and to the world around us. Now, as a widow, I continue to travel as a way to process my grief and rediscover who I am, carrying John’s spirit with me along every road I travel. My daughter, now in college, still joins me whenever she can, and those moments together remind me that healing happens in both solitude and togetherness.
Through The Wandering Widow, I write about love, loss, travel, faith and the sacred art of finding oneself again, one journey, one sunset, one unfamiliar road at a time. I’m learning that healing doesn’t follow a straight or linear path; it meanders, much like the winding roads I now find myself drawn to. Each destination offers something different: a quiet moment of reflection, a conversation with a stranger, or a glimpse of beauty that reminds me I am still here, and that John is still here with me. Now, he meets me in the places and spaces where I find beauty, whether it's traveling to my back porch to watch the birds or in a far-off countryside village that is a world away from my back porch. He is still there.
Other Places You Can Find Me
In addition to this blog, I also write at Sacred Spaces: Standing on Holy Ground, a space dedicated to exploring loss, trauma, and faith. Through both projects, my hope is to offer comfort, connection, and courage to others navigating the difficult and strenuous terrain of grief—reminding them that even in the aftermath of loss, there are still new places to go, new stories to write, and new life to be lived. If you are struggling with loss, I hope this space offers you a bit of comfort and peace.