Artis Henderson's "Unremarried Widow"

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Artis Henderson is an award-winning journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Florida Weekly, and the online literary journal Common Ties. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a graduate degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

On November 6, 2006, the Apache helicopter carrying her husband Miles crashed in Iraq, leaving twenty-six-year-old Artis—in official military terms—an “unremarried widow.”

“In her memoir Artis recounts not only the unlikely love story she shared with Miles and her unfathomable recovery in the wake of his death— from the dark hours following the military notification to the first fumbling attempts at new love—but also reveals how Miles’s death mirrored her father’s death in a plane crash, which Artis survived when she was five years old and which left her own mother a young widow.”

Here Henderson deamcasts an adaptation of Unremarried Widow:

Being asked to cast a memoir is a tricky proposition—it's like one of those man-on-the-street interviews they used to do where they'd ask random people what celebrities they resembled. Then they'd plaster the random person's photo on the screen next to the celebrity and everyone at home would get a good chuckle because of course they looked nothing alike.

But this is my fantasy, so I might as well cast the movie however I damn well please.

To play me, I'd pick Jennifer Lawrence. Not only is she a fantastic actress, but she's the right age, the right build, and I think we both have these round cheeks. Also, the woman at the nail salon I go to when I'm visiting my mom's house in Florida said that Jennifer Lawrence's grandparents live down the street. So, we're practically the same person.

For Miles, I'd cast Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They're both handsome in a boyish, charming way. I also get this vibe from Gordon-Levitt of an essential goodness in his nature. Miles had it, too. It's something that can't be faked.

Learn more about the book and author at Artis Henderson's website and Facebook page.

The Page 99 Test: Unremarried Widow.

--Marshal Zeringue