A friend recently connected me with her friend who had unexpectedly lost her partner a few months ago. In talking with her, I recognized that “under the surface shock while trying to pretend to hold a normal conversation” that I (and probably most of us) felt after Lynn passed – especially for those first 6-12 […]
Widowed Memories
Fetching Hope
It was another extremely hot week here in Northeast Florida with heat indexes up to 114 “feels like” degrees. And of course the humidity makes it almost pointless to shower if you plan to spend any time outdoors, even early in the morning. You do get used to it, and to move more slowly as […]
More trips down memory lane …
So if anyone is wondering what Mario and I were doing in the 90s, this pile of old rave and club flyers gives a good clue! I’ve mentioned before we were DJs in the Los Angeles club and underground rave scene. During my closet clean out project last week, I also stumbled upon a plastic […]
Hello August … Hello Melancholy
For the past 16 years I’ve been visited by a melancholy that begins mid-August and lasts through September. Some years it has spoken quite loudly; other years just a quiet whisper. This year feels especially heavy. I’ve mentioned previously that my two wedding anniversaries and two death dates are very closely connected: I married Vern […]
Going Through Memories
Still going through the grief of losing my kitty, Freya. And apparently my “go to” for dealing with grief is cleaning and organizing. So I started going through the closet in my back bedroom which acts as my guest room, library and entertainment area (a 2nd tv, Nintendo 64, DVD and VCR). The closet had […]
“Small” Strong Steps Forward
Last Tuesday I attended a County Commissioner’s meeting here in Putnam County, Florida. I showed up to support the important issue of animal code enforcement which is truly needed here in this rural county. Recently, a young woman was rescued during a dog attack and there have been fatalities in this county as well as […]
Sad Songs DO Say So Much
This has not been one of my better weeks. Sadly, my kitty with the illness died on Monday night. Tuesday I had to make a 3 hour drive to pick up Mario’s dad at the airport on 3 hours sleep. Wednesday I found out that the Jeep repair I was originally quoted $1900 jumped to […]
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 […]
“Thanks for the Adventure – Now Go Have a New One!”
I recently watched a clip from the animated movie, “UP” (tearjerker, if you haven’t seen it). It was the scene where Carl, who was recently widowed, is looking thru a photo album his wife, Ellie, had made. In it, she had photos from their life together. They were “regular life” photos, getting married, buying their […]
The Tree of Life Grows On
At 5:30am Thursday, I received a text from my brother John (I was already up). He, his wife and son were in the Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, GA, waiting to board a plane for California. They were travelling to attend the Services for Oliver Tree, who is the son or our cousin Christine and her […]
Ramblings
It’s another one of those weeks where I really have a lot of my mind, but trouble writing about it. One of the things is the passage of time. I’m not sure I really valued time as much as I do now before loved ones in my life started dying, which is a bit of […]
Staring at the blank page before you ….
Spent a lot of time this week reminiscing … reading the old blog I started right after Vern died, looking through photos of special times I had with Jim and with Vern, and beginning to write in a new personal blog for this time in my life after losing Jim. I am so very […]