I hope everyone is enjoying a safe and sound holiday weekend during the Fourth of July celebrations that are inevitably ocurring in all corners of the United States. I like to think of the First of July as a good time to declare Happy Half Year and take a moment to process the first portion […]
Miscellaneous
Keeping Their Memories Alive
Last Monday, CAMP WIDOW a Documentary, aired via PBS/Independent Lens. It’s a short form documentary that packs a depth of emotion, a glimpse into the heart of an event that unites the widowed in a way like no other. I attended, and had the honor to present at, Camp Widow San Diego in 2023, […]
Going Through It
If you’ve been following along with me, I’m going through a situation with my mom right now (almost exactly a year after my dad passed away) where she came quite close to death. I’m realizing in hindsight that it was only because of the quick actions of the team of nurses and doctors in the […]
Memories Well-Coached
Tomorrow is Father’s Day and I’ll take this opportunity to write first a little about the special bond my late dad, Jack, had with my late husband Rich. There were some commonalities. My father’s middle name was Richard and they’d both served in the United States Navy, my dad also a member of the US […]
Eternal Rest: Honoring my Mother
Last year at this time I was in New York State for my mother’s Memorial Service that was held at the Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville, NY. It was a warm summer day, perfect for a gathering of friends and family. My father, a WWII Veteran, had been interred in this […]
The Memory and Comfort of “Mangia”
One of Lynn and my favorite restaurants recently closed. It was a neighborhood Italian restaurant, and when Lynn passed, the owned gave me a bottle of wine as a condolence gift. Lynn judged Italian restaurant based on how good their eggplant parmesan was, and this restaurant passed her test on our first visit. We went […]
It’s a “Win-Win” Situation
As I relayed in a previous post, at the tail-end of March I welcomed a tiny 5 lb. pup into our pack. Since then, she has quadrupled in weight and at four months she is just a about 20 lbs. It’s noted that if you double the weight of a 4 month-old puppy, you can […]
Communication Breakdown
I grabbed my Android phone a few weeks back, only to observe that its familiar interface appeared different. Quickly, I determined that a new, or at least a dramatically changed, operating system had been foisted upon me and that I had to accept it. The change has been problematic. Overnight, it seemed I had lost […]
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 […]
Unexpected Downtime
This week has been a kind of awful that I have not experienced for probably 20 years or more. Tuesday night, I started to feel progressively ill. Like the kind of ill where you know it was something you ate (in my unfortunate case it was a deli salad). By 11pm I was absolutely wrecked […]
Who Says You Can’t Go Home?
“Who says you can’t go home?” asks the lyrics of a song written by New Jersey natives, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. Two weeks ago, I made a trek to my home state of New Jersey for a quick visit with some friends and to attend a class reunion. I’d looked forward to returning […]
Boys’ Night Out
Last night was another Boys’ Night Out, an occasional, generally impromptu, casual dinner (or breakfast or lunch) with some of the fellas. We’re all old men now, and to see us today, it’s hard to imagine that we once were so young, brimming with energy, just beginning our adult lives’ adventures. The subject matter of […]