( CNN ) -- Taryn Davis was 19 when she married her high school sweetheart . `` It was probably the happiest point of my life , '' she said . `` I did n't need someone to complete my life . He made me want to be a better person . '' Two days after the wedding , Davis moved to Alaska to be with her husband , Michael Davis , who was stationed at an Army base there , putting their honeymoon plans on hold . `` He wanted to take me to Hawaii , '' she remembered . But they never got to take that trip . On May 21 , 2007 , Davis came home to find two men waiting to tell her that her husband had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq . At 21 , Davis was a widow . Consumed by grief , she felt she had nowhere to turn for support . After her husband was deployed to Iraq , Davis moved back home to San Marcos , Texas , away from a military community . `` I did n't live near any bases , '' she said . `` When Michael was killed , I was in my senior year in college . I did n't have a connection to military wives . '' But Davis was not alone . Since 2001 , the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left 2,829 women without husbands and 46 men without wives , according to a May 2011 report from the Defense Manpower Data Center . `` In the beginning after I lost Michael , I honestly wanted to die , '' she said . `` I wanted someone 21 to say , ' I got the knock on the door . I had the two men who said the words that shattered my world . And I am like you and trying to pick up the pieces . ' `` So she made it her mission to seek out other widows . She contacted a widow whose husband was killed alongside hers . `` I gave her a call one day , and I said , ' I want to know all the things that people stopped asking me . I want to know how you met your husband . I want to know how you fell in love , how you were notified , and most importantly , I want to know what makes you get up every day and face life again , ' because I did n't know the answers . '' Davis found other widows on MySpace and used some of the $ 100,000 she received in military death benefits to buy video equipment . Then she set out across the country to interview six widows in six different cities . `` It was in the midst of filming that documentary that I got the idea of starting a nonprofit organization that would allow these women to have a place to share all the things that we basically were asking [ in the film ] , '' she said . Four months after Davis ' husband was killed , the American Widow Project was born . Since then , more than 750 widows have joined the organization . It started with the website -- a place for young widows to share their stories , learn from one another and find comfort in knowing they 're not alone . Then Davis began organizing `` getaway '' trips so the widows could meet in person . The trips have ranged from skydiving out of planes to rebuilding a house damaged by Hurricane Katrina through the St. Bernard Project . Brooke Toner , a widow who helped rebuild the house in New Orleans , said it was hard to find other people who understood what she was going through . `` After Frankie died , I just felt like there was nothing that was going to give me any comfort , '' Toner said . `` I felt like nobody could understand that amount of loss of my best friend , my husband , my soul mate . `` I did n't even think that these women could understand that . But I 've been fortunate to meet all of them . They 're dealing with so much of it , and they 're on a similar path . For me , it 's comforting . '' Erin Dructor , who also lost her husband , agrees . `` It 's opened my eyes to show me different ways on how to be able to handle things to where I feel like I 'm not alone , '' she said . `` It 's definitely helped me heal more . '' For Davis , starting the organization has helped her just as much as it 's helping other young widows . `` In the beginning , it was hard for me to even laugh or smile because I thought if people saw me laughing or smiling , they would think that I was over Michael , '' she said . `` In reality , I 've learned that when I 'm laughing and smiling and I feel most alive is when I feel my husband the most . `` We 're all on different journeys . We all have different paths . But to come here on one of our getaways for at least three days and just feel united , feel the love of our husbands and feel the love of our new lives that we 're rebuilding together ... that 's the thing that gets me through it . ''
Taryn Davis founded the American Widow Project after her husband was killed in Iraq . The project is a nonprofit organization that provides support to widows and widowers who have lost loved ones serving our country. Widows can share stories on americanwidowproject.org , meet other women on getaway trips .