on our path toward healing Part 1 of a series focusing on the benefits of a protected deep listening experience. What is non-judgmental listening? It’s an integral piece of creating an authentic community where everyone feels seen and heard. A safe place to grow. The gift of non-judgmental listening, within a safe space, changed my […]
I Saw You There
happy birthday, my love! your 75th year took me back to when we were first wed and your dad being 50 seemed so old! i teased him calling him “half-a-century” old and he reciprocated when I turned 25 by calling me a “quarter-century” old :)) writing this story reminds me of my luck […]
Widowhood Lessons
From a Labrador Retriever Awakened by my pet at 3:00am, I moan…. “Indy. . .” “Seriously?” A refrain I speak to my pet and my widowed life regularly. On par with life, her wee-hour pee evolves, occasionally, into something more complicated if a possum, racoon, or other nighttime critter makes an appearance. This […]
The Call and Response
When Traveling the Path of Grief The path we each travel to make our way through the daily ins & outs of our grief is personal and unique. As widowed people, our paths are often similar, yet different. On August 28, 2025, my husband’s birthday comes round, yet again, marking 75 years since he arrived. […]
Care of Self – Care for Others
Finding Balance Along the Path of Grief Is it just me? Or does widowhood feel like school sometimes? Autodidactic daily learning? Today my self-led course is about balancing care for others with care for myself. Not a new course, but one of many lessons that keeps returning until I (quote) get it right? Not sure. […]
If I Could Tell You One More Thing
It’s been 2,266,454 minutes since you left. In 31,784 minutes, it will be your birthday. I’m curious . . . if I could tell you just one more thing, in person, what would I choose to say? I’d love to look into your eyes again and lean in close. I’d love to see […]
Ocean Beckons
With Deep Medicine During Dan’s illness and throughout his last days on earth, the ocean brought me comfort. Words fail to capture how much it helped me, but it was something about the immensity of the sea. Boundless immensity. Unfathomable depths. Powerful enough to kill and mysteriously gentle. Home to millions of sea creatures within […]
Letting Go
Again My son surprised me when he seemed surprised himself when I said “I’m giving away Dad’s chair.” His face witnessed to his inner reaction. It was unexpected his desire to hold on to the recliner. It’s been four and a half years and I thought if one of the kids wanted it […]
Standing Between Milestones
I’m Still Here The yearly calendar continues its dance. Just passed July 4th wedding anniversary and just ahead, in August, Dan’s birthday (tho not till the 28th). A footpath for grief? Or milestones on the journey? Who can say for sure what any of it means? Poetry says it best. I held my morning […]
Looking back . . .
. . . it was all fear. “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” –C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed An interesting phenomena when looking back to the early days of widowhood is that I see things now that I was unable to see then. Things I may or may not […]
How far have I come?
Where am I headed? The word journey is a funny word. It seems to speak of both time and distance. How far does one travel on the path of grief? Where exactly are we “going”? From 2021 to the present, my journey loosely followed this trajectory: –Year One was a fog; I went […]
A Love Letter to Widowed People
in Riverside and Beyond Michele Neff Hernandez, SSI, and Marlene Huerta Frazer, Widow Goals, Inland Empire Do you ever have a “plan” that’s perfect and then you find that LIFE has it’s own plan? I sure do. When volunteering to host a screening for Camp Widow, I had a vision in my mind that […]