“The presence and companionship of dogs, the observation of their playful tactics has helped patients on their way back to normal thinking and living.” Captain Wm. Lewis Judy,Founder of National Dog Week (1928) and long time publisher of Dog World Magazine. I realized the other day that as the Saturday Widow’s Voice poster I’d be […]
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Filling in the Gaps
We buried my sister this past Monday. The rabbi who performed her service never met her in life. Nonetheless, based on anecdotal evidence she acquired from my sister’s two sons, her husband and myself, I thought she performed admirably and on short notice. I was struck by how each of us recalled her in our […]
A Collision of Griefs
COLLISION implies the coming together of two or more things with such force that both or all are damaged or their progress is severely impeded. —Merriam Webster Not a great day today. Not an actual collision, but a collision of complications connected with the death of my husband. If I were to name it, were […]
Some emails jump out and punch me
Photo of Julia by one of her school friends I needed to find an email I knew would be in my inbox somewhere, and so typed in two Christian names that I figured would result in what I was looking for. The email I was hunting for showed up, but so did this one. I […]
Another Suicide Loss
Last week, news broke that Stephen “tWitch” Boss died by suicide. As a survivor of suicide loss, each time I hear of someone else dying this way I feel a little crushed. It’s like my brain can’t process how or why this keeps happening to people. The subsequent days filled my news feeds with things […]
On this day
On this day back in 2005, it was the Sunday before Christmas, just like this year. It was very very cold – somewhere in the low 20’s. It was windy. We were in NYC and standing beneath the base of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, when Don Shepherd got down on one knee and asked […]
Seasons of The Mermaid
When I first moved to Southeast Coastal Georgia in March 2020, the Pandemic was in its early stages. In our new clime, however, life went on pretty much as usual with fewer restrictions than in the Northern region we’d just left. March in Southeast Georgia can be quite warm and by April, pool season was […]
Missing moments.
Today I successfully defended my dissertation proposal for my Ph.D. This means I am in the final phase of my program…only the dissertation left to go. In my department, this step in the process is pretty significant. A lot of pressure, preparation, and anxiety goes into this phase. Although I was pretty confident I would […]
Sad December
December can be a rough month. December 8 marks the death of my mother. December 12 marked my dad’s birthday, but he is gone, too. Today, I’ve just learned that my sister, Lorrie, who had been ill for a long time, passed quietly this morning around 3:30 a.m. God bless you, sis.
The Longest Night
At the winter solstice the Sun travels the shortest path through the sky, and that day therefore has the least daylight and the longest night. [Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica] Last night I participated in a meet-up titled Still Point, a reference to that longest night on its way to us. Sixty minutes of spontaneous art shared […]
Two Additional Years
Image by Kristopher Fuller on Unsplash Today I have lived two full years longer than Mike lived. He never quite made 20,000 days, and I am now well over that milestone. I have been lucky to have… 730 additional days 17,520 additional hours 10,512,000 additional minutes 63,072,000 additional seconds …as compared with what Mike had. […]
Branching Out
A month ago, I went to dinner with some college friends for my birthday. While we were having a pre-dinner drink at the bar, one of them suggest I check out an app called Meet Up. This friend never married or had children. As most of us were getting married and having babies, we weren’t […]