Lately, for some reason, I’ve been especially nostalgic for my home state of New Jersey. Maybe it’s the news coverage and all the dire forecasts of the meterologists that have that state, and many others, under warnings for a storm of historic proportions currently spreading across the nation and set to paralyze normal life this […]
Welcome To My Museum of Stuff
During the second week of January, I found myself returning to the home in Georgia that my late-husband Rich and I purchased six years ago. There, I continued to curate what I call the My Museum of Stuff, a third garage where a collection of family nostalgia and items that belonged to Rich are stored. […]
Tripping Around the Sun
The New Year has started out eventful. As the days grow slightly longer, they seem to be less heavy and lighter on all levels. I, too, feel the collective relief that those widowed often feel when the holiday season comes to an end. Even those who’ve moved forward with new life chapters feel the weight […]
Unexpected Havens
Writing this in Real Time early New Year’s Day. At precisely 12:01am, I experienced a deep sense of relief that 2025 had concluded softly without the loss of an immediate family member. I lost Rich in late 2021, my nephew who was the son of my late sister in May 2022 and my father and […]
Every Day is a Holiday
There are literally 45 minutes remaining in Christmas Day 2025 as I begin to write this post. Having just spent time on a variety of sites for the widowed on Social Media, many commenters were counting down the minutes and hours for the day to be over. Many more relayed how they’d dreaded the days […]
Holiday Adaptations
This week I spent some time in my former residence in St. Marys, Georgia. With its recent tenants moved out, I haven’t spent much time in that house for the last two years. With a new development currently being constructed literally in my own backyard, the woods that once lined that property have been replaced […]
On the Scent of Home
Four years ago December 9th, I adopted an adorable Maltese-mix puppy out in San Diego. I’ve written before about Quint’s arrival in my life just seven weeks after Rich’s passing. Quint, named for Robert Shaw’s character in JAWS, began his life on the very same day Rich entered the ICU beginning what would become the […]
Moving Parts
As we are just about through the first week of December, I realize that this is the third Christmas spent here in Old Florida. For those who may not know, I moved here two years after the passing of my husband, Rich. I was content in the home in Southeast Georgia that Rich and I […]
Passing Holiday Milestones to Better Days Ahead
Just a few days ago, an archived Facebook photo from 2021 that I’d posted the Thanksgiving weekend four weeks after Rich’s passing, appeared in my Feed. At that time, my elderly mother had come to stay with me and although I truly wasn’t into holiday decorating, for her sake, I did. That memory made […]
The Best Dog I Never Needed
When I “ran off” to my new life in rural Northeast Central Florida in September 2023, the last thing I needed in my life was a new dog. As I’ve written before in previous Widow’s Voice posts, however, i think that dogs seem to enter our lives often when we don’t even know how […]
Getting into The Write Spirit
Last week I wrote about being inspired by my trip up North to New England for a visit with family. I relayed about how thrilling it was to tour the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts and my visit to a gallery in town with some beautiful landscapes by local artists and how I wanted […]
Northern Climbs
Last weekend I had an inspirational visit to New England, the origin of my late father’s family, of French Canadian descent. As a kid, most holidays found my family loading up the car for another trek from New Jersey to Massachusettes where my siblings and I made fun of the accents of 42 our first […]