The women gathered in Taryn Davis’ Buda home this weekend look like they might be having a college reunion.

Their laughter and shared jokes might fool you into thinking they were longtime friends catching up on old times.

But the women, in fact, are mostly strangers, meeting one another for the first time.

The sense of family comes from a painful bond - something few other than those who’ve gone through the same thing can understand.

All are young widows, coping with the death of a husband who died while serving in the U.S. military.

“These are women I speak to on a daily basis,” says Jocelyn Mintzlaff, whose husband Staff Sgt. Brian Mintzlaff, died in Iraq Dec. 18, 2006.

“We’re sort of the new generation of widow using the Internet,” Mintzlaff says. “We’re on MySpace and we have the website, so it’s easier to find these widows and find ones in your area. You can have lunch and really connect with someone who has gone through what you have.”

Taryn Davis of Buda started the American Widow Project after her husband, Corp. Michael Davis, was killed in Baghdad May 21, 2007.

“I found out at 11:30 at night,” Taryn Davis recalled. “My neighbor called and told me there were people needed to talk to me, but wouldn’t tell me who....

“I got in the car and repeatedly said, ‘Dear Lord, let it be an injury. Dear Lord, let it be an injury.’ And so before we turned the corner I made him stop the car and I wanted to see if there were two people, and I knew if there were two people that he was dead.

“I walked up…I sat on my porch and one (solder) was shaking and they walked up and said the words that are kind of embedded…’the secretary of defense regrets to inform you’…and it was just a zombie state. Then emotions go wild. You’re sick, you’re screaming, you’re crying, and then you’re totally calm. And then it kind of recycles over and over.”

As she tried to recover from her husband’s death, Davis realized she couldn’t find anyone who really understood what it was like to lose a husband who was in the military. She desperately wanted to help other widows.

“I thought of what would have helped me? And it would have been to have a widow just come to my house and pop open a beer and laugh and cry and tell me why they’re still breathing, because I didn’t know why,” Davis said.

That’s what she hopes widows will be able to do now, thanks to the American Widow Project (americanwidowproject.org) that she just launched.

The Web site offers a hotline number for support, as well as practical tips such as what to do with a husband’s toiletries or clothes after his death. There’s also information on what to expect in the days, weeks and months after the death.

This weekend widows from across the country are gathering in Austin to support one another and to watch a documentary on widows Davis worked on, which is showing Saturday at the Alamo Drafthouse South.

“I’ve been here a couple days and it’s been great,” says Angelee Lombardi, whose husband, Air Force Staff Sgt. Keith Lombardi, died in a car crash while he was stationed in Germany. “I haven’t had that. It’s been a little over a year for me, and I haven’t had that connection with someone who understands.”