My beautiful baby boy, mi chango peludo, mi pedacito de carne… Today, Wednesday, October 14, 2026, you are turning 18. A whole adult, they say. But as your sister keeps reminding you, your frontal lobe won’t be fully developed until you’re 25, so congratulations, you still have seven years left to blame your brain! 😂 […]
Widowed Birthdays
I Think You’d Be Proud of Me…
There’s a trend going around where people are videotaping someone with their birthday cake. As they sit there, their loved ones put a lighted candle in the cake, and tell them what THEIR wish for the birthday celebrant is. Example: “I wish you happiness this year.” “I wish you continued success in your career.” “I wish […]
Happy Birthday, Jim
Jim’s 80th birthday was Thursday. We had talked about doing something extra special in 2026 when I hit 75 and he hit 80 … a trip to Hawaii, perhaps … or maybe even Italy! It was fun thinking about what we might decide to do … until he got so sick and we just took […]
Happy Birthday, Mi Amor ❤️🩹
Hi, baby. It’s me. I’m sorry I haven’t written to you until now. But I know you know. I tried and I just couldn’t. My heart too broken, the pain too deep, the rage too strong. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. It’s funny. Well, not haha funny, but you know what I mean. […]
Another Birthday
Had she not died, Lee would be turning seventy-two this coming Monday, and I would have celebratory plans already in place to mark another happy chapter. Instead, I am left to ponder what life might have been like had she lived. Frankly, it’s confusing to consider possible outcomes. Had Lee survived, Robyn and I likely […]
HAPPY? BIRTHDAY TO ME 🥳
March 8th, 2026 I turned 51. Happy birthday to me 🥳 That word… happy. Its meaning has changed so much for me. It takes real effort for me to say it these days, because very few things feel worthy of that word. Everything is tainted by the shadow of grief. I stop and think: Do […]
A Win-Win Situation
I begin this post with a disclamer. I do not, nor ever have, been employed by the supermarket chain Winn Dixie, nor did I write the book Because of Winn Dixie, although it’s a great dog story. That honor belongs to the incredible children’s author Kate DiCamillo. I am, however, the loving dog mom to […]
Moving “4”ward Year by Year
It occurs to me that yesterday, January 30th, was the 6th anniversary of the closing of the home my late-husband, Rich, and I purchased in 2020 in St. Marys, GA. It was an exciting time with the promise of a happy future. It also happens to be Rich’s birthday next week, on February 4th, the […]
Another Bloody Birthday
Yesterday was Tony’s birthday. He should have been turning 48, but he is forever 43. I actually double checked myself because 48 didn’t sound right. He was born two years before me so keeping track of his age is easy. Yet still I questioned if that number was right. Five birthdays we’ve missed his presence […]
I Saw You There
happy birthday, my love! your 75th year took me back to when we were first wed and your dad being 50 seemed so old! i teased him calling him “half-a-century” old and he reciprocated when I turned 25 by calling me a “quarter-century” old :)) writing this story reminds me of my luck […]
Just Another Birthday
Tomorrow is my 74th birthday. These days, my earliest birthday memory is vague, but it involved competing birthday parties for me and a classmate when we were either five or six years old. Naturally, the real competition was between our mothers, who jousted over which party would take place earlier on Saturday afternoon. I don’t […]
Revisiting the Month of June
Today’s post is a reprint from June 2024 with a few slight alterations. You might surmise that June is my funkiest month, and you would be correct. Nothing much has changed in a year, except I plan to turn seventy-four…. *** According to one poll (https://today..ougov.com/society/articles/45312-americans-favorite-and-least-favorite-months-year), thirty-nine percent of adult Americans love the month of […]