Robyn was born in the 20th Century, the youngest of three children, and not too long before I arrived. She grew up in the big city, attended its public schools, and has a high school diploma to prove it. As I recall, her dad either owned or was employed in a neighborhood pharmacy, a place […]
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Staying Busy
The last few years I’ve kept us extremely busy. Hey, at least I’m self-aware! Some of it is the stage of life I’m in with the kids. During the school year, the weekends and evenings are filled with homework, sports, and the various social functions that come with parenting school aged children. There are some […]
Overload
Can I just please say that I am so incredibly tired? So exhausted. Physically wiped out, mentally and emotionally drained and over-loaded. Too many boxes, too many bags, too many stairs to go up and down with heavy things, too many goodbyes to things I dont really want to say goodbye to, too many opinions […]
Raft Years
This past week marked an important milestone in my widowed process. It was a year ago on a hot August day, with only Quint by my side, that I made an appointment with a realtor to look at three properties in a small rural town in the Lake District of Central Florida two hours south […]
Avoiding Solitude
I was in my front yard with Lola the pup when I noticed Allie, who lives in the blue house across the street, standing and looking out of her living room window. She is holding tiny Baby Etta, whom she and Drew recently welcomed back in late June, around the same time as my birthday. […]
Things That Never Happened
Every once in awhile, I will be going about my day and my life, and then something will happen where it shines a big bright spotlight about all of the loss and all of the things that never happened in my life and all of the ways that I am “different” than my friends. This […]
Finding Family
Reunions of any kind can stir up all kinds of thoughts and feelings – happiness, nostalgia, a desire to connect, and inevitably sadness due to the fact that reunions can remind us of those who are no longer here with us. My parents met in New Jersey – my mom a coal miner’s daughter […]
Cat Ladies
A recent Pew poll of people of different ages who don’t have biological children (see https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/the-experiences-of-u-s-adults-who-dont-have-children/ 7/25/24) suggests this circumstance is more common nowadays than when I came up. I could go into detail trying to explain how my situation evolved, but why bother? Today I am seventy-three years old and don’t plan to become […]
The Beginning and the End
Ive always said that every end is another beginning, and every beginning is another end. Usually one happens because of the other, and they sort of blend together. They can both be emotional and scary and often times, when we are going through the end of something, the last thing we want to hear is […]
Camp Widow Confidential
Happy Saturday. As I wasn’t able to attend Camp Widow in San Diego this year, I asked Margie Perez, a four-time Camp Widow ambassador to share her experience there. I met Margie on my first day at Camp Widow San Diego last year. I liked her positive and outgoing approach and her sense of humor. […]
Lola the Wonder Dog
My first contribution to this blog, entitled “Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself” (Feb. 4, 2021), concludes: “So I was left to ponder the BIG QUESTIONS: Am I destined to die alone? Why shouldn’t I get a dog?” *** The first question remains wide open. As for the second, well, I got the dog and […]
Life-Changing Paths
Each time Friday rolls around I’m stunned. The other day I posted that it was Thursday until someone reminded me that it was actually Wednesday! I guess that’s a good thing – to be so absorbed in daily life activities that one is no longer fixated on days, nights, hours, minutes. That’s a gift, I […]