The other day I ran into somebody that I havent seen since literally my teenage years. It was somebody I went to school with, but not somebody I knew well. It was at the gas station, and we were both at the pumps getting gas, and she recognized me and said hello. Then came the […]

So its been one week exactly since Mothers Day, and since I walked down the stairs to find my beloved kitty Sammy, lying there dead on the cement basement floor. As hard as I try not to focus on that part, its tough. Every time I walk down there this past week, and if Im […]

This is pretty much what I wrote on Facebook this morning, with a few added thoughts. I just do not have the energy to put thoughts to words right now. My Sammy is gone on this Mothers Day. Woke up super early this morning with “that feeling” that I needed to go and check on […]

Sundays are my writing days here. Sometimes, on a Sunday, I get up and make my coffee, and sit down to write, and the words just flow. I know what I want to say, and I write it, and all is well in widow blog-land. Then there are days like today. Theres nothing I have […]

So my parents are moving on Tuesday. For the past almost decade, I have either lived in their house with them (before getting my own apartment with Nick, and then, now, our own house), or they have been less than 10 minutes away. I could just “drop by” mom and dads, which happened often, and […]

Happy Easter to those who celebrate – Happy Sunday to those who don’t – and Happy “Congrats! You made it through another day today, and a holiday to boot!” to those in deep grief. Im blogging at 9pm at night tonight, because its the first chance Ive had to sit and write something today. This […]

When I met Don Shepherd in a music chat room on AOL back in 1998, he was a single man living in a tiny apartment in Largo, Florida, with his cat Isabelle. Its safe to say he loved that cat more than he loved most things, and me being a part of his life was […]

The other night, Nick and I were flipping channels on the TV, and we stopped on an episode of “South Park.” It was mid-way through the episode, and it was immediately funny, so we ended up watching it to its completion. A little while later, Nick commented on how much I was laughing out loud […]

Michele posted earlier on her FB page about the idea of giving ourselves grace and also giving this post-loss version of ourselves credit for all that we do. So today Im giving myself grace and forgiveness that Im hours late writing this, that Im totally exhausted, and that I dont much feel like “widow-ing” today. […]

This Thursday, I will be flying from Boston to Tampa, Florida (fingers crossed) for one of my favorite events to both attend and present at: Camp Widow. The last Camp Widow in Tampa was back in 2019. Then, about two years ago this week, the pandemic began, and it slowly became obvious that we would […]

In the past decade of years that I’ve “put in” as a widowed person, one thing I have noticed time and again is the endless debate about seeing “signs” from our loved ones who have died. There are so many theories about this, and so many opinions, and those in the widowed community that I […]

When I was first widowed back in July of 2011, and for a long time after, lots and lots of people suggested writing as a coping tool for the grief. People said to write down all my thoughts, my emotions, all of it. Some people suggested writing letters or notes to Don himself, to continue […]