I’ve had a bit of an odd thought lately, running through my mind. When Chuck proposed to me 24 years ago, I was ecstatic but had a condition. He had to be okay with me keeping my maiden name. I’d taken it back after my divorce and it had taken work on my part in womens’ groups and counseling to win back the me who’d disappeared for the years of…
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Stumped
It’s one of those ‘what the heck to I write about’ weeks. It’s hard because it’s been a “good” week. Which is really anything that isn’t a bad week. The week has been without too many of those sledgehammer ‘my husband’s dead’ moments. And when they’ve come, it’s been at odd times, like unstacking the dishwasher. But it’s simply been a week where we…
Co-proposed
As we hike through a mountainous eastern Oregon wilderness, I feel that dip in my stomach, like the moment before you plunge down a roller coaster hill as I think about the man walking in front of me on the trail. I feel solid in footing and grateful for the chance to be living a life with him. I feel, after knowing him for 8 months, that he had…
Not Like Any Other Normal Day
While my husband was taking his last breath, I was at home re-potting these plants. Totally oblivious that my world – as I knew it – was about to end. The shower drain in my bathroom really needs to be cleaned out, yet the thought of doing it causes the blood in my body to rush to my toes and leaves me feeling like I can’t breathe. You see,…
The Healing Cycle
This past week something really big happened for me. It was one of those things that originally came out of nowhere, yet will be something I will remember for the rest of my life. It all began almost a year ago, with an email. The woman writing to me was a poet, and she came across my photography online and wanted to use one of my images for the…
The Joan Effect
I am crying tonight, because Joan Rivers has died.I did not know her. I have never met her. She was not my friend. But something, many things actually, about her, resonated with me – and so I felt this unspoken kinship with her. Female. Comedian. Widow. Those are all me. Those are all Joan. As a woman, I identified with and respected like hell her…
Far and Away
The past two weeks I’ve been on a trip – a week with my folks in Virginia, and as this posts, I’m finishing up another week in the UK visiting my new guy’s family. I am sad that Mike and I didn’t travel more together. We did visit my family in Virginia a few times, and he was mesmerized by the place – the lush vegetation, the history – the…
Simple Words
I don’t really have any words this week. I miss my husband more than any words can convey. The more time passes, the more months go by, the more deeply embedded his absence from my life becomes. If I were to write a full blog this week, it would consist of I miss you, I miss you, I miss you over and over and over again.It would be written to my…
Existing
In 1998/99 I spent a year living and teaching English conversation in Japan. And up until recently, I would describe that year in many ways as ‘existing’, not ‘living’. But in retrospect, I had something resembling a life there, not a great one, but I was engaged socially with the expat community. Now at home, as a widow, I really find I’m in a…
A Matter of When
For 15 years (from 20 to 35 – while Dave and I were together), I didn’t think I wanted kids. I knew Dave really didn’t and I figured that little nagging question mark in the depths of my heart (Should I? Am I missing out?) was just about questioning and doubting, which is what I do about everything. From the moment he died, though, something…
A Powerful Irony
Dearest Pepe, This week you’ve been on my heart minute to minute as the anniversary of our final kiss has loomed large. Flashes of the last week we shared as husband and wife have been spontaneously popping into my head with surprising clarity. There is no rhyme or reason to these recollections, and the bittersweetness of memory has both…
My Own Worst Enemy
I feel like I’ve been in a rut for more than a month now, since Dan’s first anniversary. I’ve had days here and there where I’ve been able to smile and actually mean it, but in general, the pain has been very deep and the ache for him, overwhelming. The grief has been so relentless that it’s started messing with my head and making me…