Weekends are often difficult and long for widowed people, and holiday weekends are especially challenging. So many of us have distant, and not so distant, memories of holidays gone by. For me, the Memorial Day Weekend holds many. Places like the New Jersey Shore, embrace the unofficial beginning of the summer season even though summer […]
Military Widowed
A Widowed Valentine’s Day Expression
Gratitude Flows Can we give a “widowbit” this Valentine’s Day for the widowed person who needs us? There is so much about my widowhood journey that would not have been the same if it hadn’t been for Soaring Spirits. The idea of honoring Valentine’s Day with a Member Drive feels so right to me. […]
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. […]
Memorial Day Musings. Corpsman Up!
Another holiday weekend looms and I know even two day ordinary weekends bring emotional struggles for the widowed population. These occasions are often hollow reminders of what is no longer. No matter where we stand on the timeline of grief, none of us can escape the memories of past holidays, for better or worse, each […]
An Eye Opener:
Worldwide Widowed Communities What took me to stories about widowed folk around the world? Just returned from a mini-vacay where I had no responsibilities other than showing up for the fun. Arriving home to my regular routine, settling into the normal challenges of my post-Dan-life, I found myself wondering about the lives of […]
Settling In
It was a busy week and last night I realized that I had no draft for today’s Post, a first in my year plus of Saturdays when I’d just push the Publish button. So today follows the theme of new starts, habits and outlooks in true form. I will randomly write on. On Thursday, I […]
“Firsts” Moving Forward
Tomorrow is Father’s Day and for the first time in my life I won’t be celebrating the occasion with my dad. On Tuesday of last week, my father’s cremains were interred at the Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville, NY. It was a beautiful and solemn occasion with about dozen family members […]
Urning Places in Our Hearts
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 […]
“Urning” Places in the Heart
Rich passed on a Thursday. By Friday morning it became apparent that I had to make final arrangements for him. Throughout nearly 30 years together, Rich and I had attended many funerals and services for friends and family members. “Please don’t ever have one of those for me,” he’d commented on numerous occasions after attending […]
Hope as a Helpful Diversion
After I’d edited and saved last week’s post, The Fine Art of Inoculation, my home experienced a powerful surge followed by a brief power outage. I later found out, however, that some of my neighbors had experienced a longer period of time without power. Because of the precise timing of its occurrence, I suspect that […]
Pumping Gas on “Ruff” Roads
Did you know that Oregon and New Jersey are the only states of our nation that do not require drivers to pump their own gas? As a Jersey Girl, it wasn’t until my husband passed that I actually had to fuel my own car. Recently I’ve recalled many journeys on which my late husband, Rich […]
See You Down the Road~
To all of you, My community here… To Michele Neff Hernandez, for responding to the email I sent her after reading a Widows Voice blog in my newsfeed and deciding that I wanted to be one of the weekly writers. She called me to get acquainted, and then offered me Wednesday’s space to voice my […]