New Years Eve and New Years Day is a loaded and complex time for a lot of people; and most likely especially for anyone who is grieving or going through a significant loss of any kind. The main word that comes to mind for me when I think about New Years Eve/Day is this: PRESSURE! […]
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On Becoming a Sentimental Slob
I used to think I was such an emotional tough guy. It is true, of course, that I had sobbed in my bed like a baby on the night my grandmother died, after displaying what I thought had been laudable stoicism upon learning the news of her death earlier that day. I was eight years […]
Our Second Christmas
This is our second Christmas without Tony but despite that, it was a first of sorts. For our first Christmas without him, I couldn’t bear the thought to be in town. I didn’t want to feel forced to participate in the merriment. The thought of his empty place and the looks of condolence at all […]
Ghosts of Widows Christmas Past
Last night, the husband Nick and I had his adult son Nicholas and his girlfriend Jessica over to the house for Christmas Eve. We exchanged gifts, and Nick made us a yummy dinner of pork loin, smashed potatoes, and roasted veggies which were very colorful and quite tasty. We chatted for awhile about everyday things, […]
Filling in the Gaps
We buried my sister this past Monday. The rabbi who performed her service never met her in life. Nonetheless, based on anecdotal evidence she acquired from my sister’s two sons, her husband and myself, I thought she performed admirably and on short notice. I was struck by how each of us recalled her in our […]
On this day
On this day back in 2005, it was the Sunday before Christmas, just like this year. It was very very cold – somewhere in the low 20’s. It was windy. We were in NYC and standing beneath the base of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, when Don Shepherd got down on one knee and asked […]
Laughing Always Helps
Being a comedian and actor since as I can remember, making people laugh has always been a form of delight for me. It always instantly made me feel better to hear or watch someone else laughing. Even as a young kid, when me and my cousins would put on little shows and musicals in our […]
Dancing with the Scars
In early December of last year, a little peaches and cream ball of fluff entered my lonely life at just the “write time”. The following appeared in Ruff Drafts, the official newsletter of the Dog Writers Association of America (DWAA) an organization on which I serve as a Board Member. It’s a longer read than […]
Thanksgiving Remembrance (Revisited)
[Today I’m revisiting an article published around this same time last year.] Going back to the start of 2021, I have been volunteering my time on Thursdays at a local food pantry that serves our community. I am off today, however, because we are closed on Thanksgiving, which seems more than a bit ironic given […]
The Gift
This past Thursday was of course Thanksgiving. Many people in our widowed community struggled hard with the holiday, because holidays can be brutal, to say the least, on the widowed. So, my co-leader Allison and I thought it would be a great idea to have our November meetup for our Soaring Spirits Regional Group on […]
Event Horizon
My nephew Kevin has two kids, eleven-year-old Alyssa, and her twelve-year-old brother Nathan. For reasons I’ve never understood, a few years ago Alyysa decided that she was going to adopt a new first name. Today “Alex” is the only moniker that she will answer to. Not to be outdone, Nathan thereafter abandoned his given name […]
Hug a Widow(er)
This weekend I went out with some girlfriends. Our original plans were foiled when the cover band we wanted to see had to cancel their show due to illness. So, we pivoted and ended up at a country bar that recently reopened. I don’t know when the original one closed, but I can tell you […]