Tomorrow my mother and I will travel to Upstate New York where my father’s cremains will be interred at the Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery during a private service next week. My late husband Rich’s cremains rest in Jacksonville National Cemetery (FL), a beautiful peaceful spot. It was a place initially intended […]
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Texts.
Sometimes I do what I call “pressing the bruise” and look at something or do something that I know will trigger my grief or feel sad. This week, I did one of those things and I read through saved text messages with Boris. And yeah, it did hurt. Especially the messages where I was angry […]
Lee to the Rescue
Ordinarily Tuesdays and Wednesdays are busy days. Not only are these the days when I craft my posts to this site, but on alternating Tuesdays, including this past one, it’s also when I clean my house for Julia, the biweekly housekeeper. (I would not want Julia to discover how I really keep my house most […]
The Best of Men
ONLY A DAD by Edward Albert Guest Only a dad, but he gives his all To smooth the way for his children small, Doing, with courage stern and grim, The deeds that his father did for him. This is the line that for him I pen, Only a dad, but the best of men. Words […]
Παρακαλώ και ευχαριστώ
Main image by Sergio Garcia on Unsplash Back in the very early 1980s – or perhaps it was even the very late 1970s – I am not entirely sure… my mum started to learn Greek. I don’t know why she started, (nor why she eventually stopped), but she engaged a private teacher who showed up […]
Social Media Memories
I have a love hate relationship with the memories section of Facebook. I love looking back at pictures of the kids when they were little. Round faces, dimpled hands, and innocence. I hate that I don’t have more pictures of Tony with the kids, or just his legs made the shot. Seeing a photo of […]
An Honor
Many years ago, probably 9 or 10 or 11 years ago, back when I was in the throws of seeing my grief counselor, Caitlin, every single Monday; she said something to me that I never forgot; and that stays with me especially now, all these years later, as I finish out my first two months […]
And a Little Dog Shall Lead Me
As an author who’s built a Writer’s Platform on an Observance known as National Dog Week, I’ve tried to make it my business to keep up with the myriad of holidays and observances established just to honor the pets and animals that enhance our lives. I’ve written previously about how pets are especially helpful and […]
June Arrives
The calendar confirms that today is June 1st. Anticipating June’s arrival, I feel like a veritable human rollercoaster about to take a stomach-churning plunge. *** Our Wedding Anniversary Lee and I were married in June. By then we were both middle aged, however, it was Lee’s first marriage. She happily planned every detail of our […]
Healing Support Tools: The Labyrinth
Labyrinths represent a journey or path to our own center and back again. The labyrinth serves as a metaphor for life’s journey. —Healing Consciousness Foundation What is a labyrinth? There are many definitions for the word “labyrinth”. One simple way to explain it is “a series of circuitous paths that lead to the center and […]
“The relationship I always wanted….”
Photo of my parents in 1961 in Córdoba, Spain – from their archives Medjool and I have just had a lovely 10 day “working break”, based mostly at my parents’ house in Céret in the Pyrénées Orientales, just inside France on the Franco-Spanish border. Now into their 80s, I try to get down to spend […]
Rollercoaster of Life
This week, I attended the 8th grade field trip to our local theme park. I was assigned a group of kids to check in with through the day, but they didn’t have to be actively chaperoned. So, with an entire day to spend in the park I found myself on a few rides. Hold on […]