On Tuesday, I awoke around 1:00am. Turning on my laptop, I knew what I was looking for; the Facebook Post I’d written on that day four years earlier sharing the sad and unwanted news with so many that Rich had lost his three-week long fight to keep on living. There are now over 500 comments […]
Widowed Memories
The Story of a Photo
I happened to be going through some old photos and stumbled on one from when we first moved to Oregon. It’s funny how images can act as little time travel devices sometimes, putting you right back to the moment it was taken. The year was 2007. Hard to believe that was now 18 years ago. […]
When Longtime Traditions Change
Yesterday, I facilitated a parol making workshop for a large group of Filipinos, some I have known since I was a child. Parols are a traditional, Philippine lantern displayed during the holiday season, and made of capiz shells. OUR homemade carols, however, are made of bamboo sticks and cellophane paper. Years ago, I would bring […]
Shards of Glass
Years ago, our local area recycled glass (they stopped doing that awhile back). It was picked up in the typical, blue recycle bin on the same day trash pick up happened. Normally, we wouldn’t have produced much glass to recycle… maybe a jam or honey jar, a salad dressing bottle here and there, that sort […]
Pondering Hope
Then and Now In the early days of losing my husband of 52 years, I was in shock. A fog. It lasted a full year and as time moved on, I saw myself clinging to optimism. I’m a hopeless optimist and the problem in that is that sometimes I avoid feeling my feelings in the […]
BBQ Community
Living in the Midwest, BBQ is a food group and a hobby. I’ve shared before that Tony loved to smoke and had a BBQ team. He also shared that love with others and built a community of competitors. One of the people he drew into that world was his boss. A few weeks ago, his […]
Reminders of Intertwined Lives
Fire season in California means updating the emergency backpack in the car. Among the various obvious items I have in it, I also have items for my “elderly” parents – particularly for my Mom’s health needs. We live 8 blocks away from each other, and the times we have had to evacuate, we evacuate together. […]
My Favorite Time of Year
There is at least one thing I like about every season of the year … snow in the mountains during the winter, the flowers in spring, the warm summer days … but with the fall, I like it ALL … the colors, the crispness in the air, Halloween, early sunsets, getting to wear all of […]
What is a Bad*ss Widowed Person Anyway?
“Badass” (often stylized with an asterisk, like “bad*ss”) is an informal term referring to someone, typically a woman in recent contexts, who is tough, formidable, and indomitable, often in the face of adversity or to challenge norms. (AI Dictionary) What qualifies a widowed person as a bad*ss? A Bad*ss Widowed Person discerns when […]
Ready to Let Go of Tangible Reflections of their Love
Lynn was big on having (over the counter) meds on hand – allergy, flu, tummy ache, headache, etc. She had them organized in plastic bags that she carefully labeled with what they were for. I have struggled all these years with clutter cleaning, getting-rid-of, holding onto things until I am ready to let them go, […]
Navigating the “Tail” of the Timeline
On Thursday, October 9, Quint, my quirky Malti-poo, turned four years old. Quint has played an integral role in my movement, and voyage, forward after the passing of my husband, Rich. On October 8, 2021, I brought Rich to the local ER after a several days of of him not feeling well after we’d returned […]
Magical Powers
Today I opened an assignment one of my kids participated in for school. The question posed to these middle schoolers was: If you had to choose one magic power for the rest of your life, what would it be? Why would you choose this power? This assignment was completed on a discussion board of sorts, […]