Earlier this week I was greeted by a Facebook post from five years ago. It was written late at night after Rich had spent several days in the hospital and I’d been trying to keep that quiet. But, with someone as outgoing and boisterous as my late husband, that was hard to do. Neighbors started […]
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Music and Memories
I recently saw this prompt online: “What was the last song that brought back a memory you hadn’t thought about in years?” Oddly enough, the night before seeing this prompt, I happened to click on my Apple Music app on my laptop and throw it on random and something that fit this prompt did come […]
Let’s Try Again
As readers might recall, Craig and Donna are two of my oldest and nearest friends. When I first met them back in 1976, they had a tiny baby daughter, Jennifer, the eldest of their four kids. In my mind’s eye, I still can see Donna gardening at my place in Rock Island with Jenny strapped […]
Feliz Cumpleaños My Baby 🥳
My beautiful baby boy, mi chango peludo, mi pedacito de carne… Today, Wednesday, October 14, 2026, you are turning 18. A whole adult, they say. But as your sister keeps reminding you, your frontal lobe won’t be fully developed until you’re 25, so congratulations, you still have seven years left to blame your brain! 😂 […]
Feel what you feel when you feel it
I ended last week’s post on a positive note. They weren’t just words to fill a page. I really did feel more positive than I have since Jim died. I survived those first-year milestones, enjoyed some wonderful times with friends, visited some beautiful spots. I felt ready to make a real effort to figure out […]
Tear It Down, Build It Up
My house is finally getting repaired after birds nested in a water damaged soffit this spring. I’ve posted about it a few times over the last year. But it’s so nice to finally make some progress. After a few offers for help failed to come through, my friend and I contemplated fixing it ourselves. I […]
Normal Widow Stuff
I came across these amazing and beautiful images online that showed human ashes under a microscope – gorgeous, colorful, and people compared the images to the galaxy, as they look very similar to the Milky Way. (I later read, “The stunning resemblance to deep-space photos from the Hubble Telescope comes from artistic framing, high-magnification focus, […]
The Blind Leading the Blonde, Happy Birthday Quint!
For the past week here in Northeast Florida, we’ve had nothing but steady rain and down pours. Yesterday was the first day we could venture out and stay dry. We are not in the hurricane zone in the panhandle region, and I don’t think our soggy weather pattern is even related to that storm, now […]
Growth
We are having a true Indian Summer here in Southern Oregon with temps up into the 80s for a couple weeks now. I’m not complaining and trying to enjoy it while I can. I’ve been thinking about trying to squeeze one more camping trip in before the weather turns and was thinking about Umpqua Lighthouse […]
Things are Looking Up ⬆️
This week, I am waiting for the upside of the grief wave. I can feel myself coming up for air. I am depleted, and I feel like my ability to bounce back is slowing down or something. With all the dates that are heavy and big for us this time of year, and all the […]
It’s been a year of Yin and Yang
shock & grief / hope ~ ups / downs ~ hurt feelings / kindness unexpected disappearances / lovely returns lots of tears / but also some laughter loneliness / community ~ isolation / travel I made it through all of those “firsts” since Jim died – and all of those memories of […]
Widow Friends Expect Less
Recently, I was able to take a quick trip to Las Vegas and catch up with a few of my widow friends. With only 4 of us, we had a small group for this trip. But it always fills my heart to be with them. We came into the weekend with zero plans since in […]