Today is Halloween and per usual my feelings are complicated. I have always loved Halloween, it’s right before my birthday, I love dressing up and expressing some creativity. Before Tony and I had kids, we used to have a big party every year and we usually put a lot of thought into our costumes. Once […]
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Wedding Planners and Grief Counselors
Thursday, October 27th, was my wedding anniversary. To the dead guy. It would have been 16 years married to each other. But instead, it was and will always be 4 years and 9 months. Now that so many years have gone by since his death, our marriage seems even more tragically cut short than it […]
Good Thoughts and Prayers
I’ve found it difficult to recall the rapidly unfolding events that occurred this week one year ago. The beautiful fall weather in the South features lack of the nearly year-round humidity. Clear Cerulean Blue skies. The Scarecrow Festival in downtown St. Marys, GA, the place I now call home. I wasn’t able to recall experiencing […]
Toronto Blues
So here’s the thing …. I wont be attending or presenting at Camp Widow Toronto this year. I just cannot make it work. Almost always in the past, I have been able to somehow make it work. Lots of people in the widowed community have helped to make that happen some years when things are […]
Decluttering
“Decluttering” seems all the rage these days. Just check the internet, which contains enough information and articles on the phenomenon to easily fill an entire basement and a garage: spend an hour, a day, a week discovering for yourself the “10 Rules,” the “27 Simple Steps,” the “50 Strategies,” ad nauseam. The hype surrounding the […]
Loving Humans is Hard
It has now been almost 3 months since my husband Nicks double bypass surgery. The doctors all say that the recovery process is lengthy, even more so for a diabetic, and that it may be 6 months to a year before he feels energetic and active and fully “well” again. His numbers are great, as […]
Cast Adrift
September 25th was Mallory’s birthday. Mallory is Andy’s daughter and Lee’s youngest great niece. Mallory’s brother, Tobey, is a year older. I sent her timely birthday wishes thanks to a special occasions list that Lee created, which I first came across after she passed. These days I try to keep up with birthdays, anniversaries and […]
Camp Widow, sort of
So i cant make it to Camp Widow Toronto this year, for various money reasons and life reasons. For the first time since I started doing my presentation at the Camp Widow events, I will not be there to participate or to present this time. Nick and I will be in Tampa for Camp Widow […]
We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Heart!
“When man gets lonely, God sends a dog.” Alphonse de Lamartine Tomorrow, October 9th, my little dog Quint turns one. Although Quint was born one of a litter of 5, the origin of his name is actually derived from the movie JAWS. Robert Shaw, the actor who played Quint in JAWS was a favorite of […]
My Apologies
After spending considerable time preparing a new article for this week’s blog, it appears I inadvertently destroyed my work scant moments before I had planned to hit the “publish” button. I don’t know how I have managed to do this. I must assume that I didn’t “save” my work correctly. Worse, being a technological boob […]
Muscle Memory
Grilling and smoking is one of the things that Tony took the lead on during our marriage. I was a passive bystander at best. One time he put me in charge of watching some jalapeno poppers he was grilling while he ran down to help a neighbor. I managed to catch one on fire and […]
Depression and Joy
Today is one of those Sundays when I cant think of anything to write about. It happens every now and then, and normally, when it happens, I start to panic and I assume that having nothing to write about must mean Im an over the hill and irrelevant widow with nothing more to say, and […]