• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Widow's Voice

Widow's Voice

  • Soaring Spirits
  • Donate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Categories
  • Authors
    • Kelley Lynn
    • Emily Vielhauer
    • Diana Mosson
    • Kathie Neff
    • Gary Ravitz
    • Sherry Holub
    • Lisa Begin-Kruysman

Stops Along the Road

Posted on: September 30, 2023 | Posted by: Lisa Begin-Kruysman

On Thursday, September 28th, Rich and I would’ve celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary. As I’ve shared in my bi-line and bio below, we celebrated our 25th anniversary up at the Jersey Shore, also spending time cleaning out my family home in Hackensack to prepare for its sale. 

It was a special time spent with people at places that held significant memories for us both. We hadn’t lived in Georgia for too long at that point and due to world events and personal obligations, we hadn’t yet truly experienced that retiree life Rich was hoping for. But in true Rich fashion, he made the best of challenging times, getting to know the locals in downtown St. Marys while trying to lose his Jersey Boy accent (not really) while crabbing off the fishing pier to some how find a place that felt like home. He once asked some of the locals if he could be a local, too. One remarked he could if he’d “loose that damn Yankee accent!” 

It was on that ride home from New Jersey just days after celebrating our anniversary with close friends of his former waterfront community, that Rich declared that when we got back to our new life in Georgia we would reboot, start anew and make us a priority. 

On the first night of our return home, we stopped along the way somewhere in North Carolina. We enjoyed dinner sitting at the bar of a crowded Olive Garden on a weekend night. In true Rich fashion, he struck up a conversation with the young bar tender who was having difficulty determining her life’s path. Also in true Rich fashion, he began to preach his mantra of becoming educated, going to college or trade school and reminding young people that life is shorter than they might think.

I didn’t know that would be our last meal out and I’m glad to be able to recall so much of it. The next evening we stayed at a “hub hotel” in Florence, South Carolina because there is a fantastic Thai food restaurant just across the road. We’d dined there a number of times and had gotten to know the owner who’d moved his family to South Caroline from Los Angeles. He and I had some deep talks about reincarnation and life path issues and one one overnight stop when we were returning from the Florida Keys, he had some interesting observations when I relayed that my sister was in hospice care. Following that discussion, my sister came to me in a vision and I believe it was her way of saying good bye as when I returned to New Jersey she could no longer speak and passed soon after.

But on our last visit to the Thai House we were greeted at the front door and informed by the owner’s wife that her husband was very ill. I recall getting a sad feeling like all wasn’t okay and as Rich had begun to not feel well, too I got an ominous vibe. The restaurant offered limited  service, but Rich got his Lemongrass soup he so loved. By morning, however, he was too sick to drive so I took the wheel. I remember him asking if we could go to Tybee Island near Savannah. I’d told him he was too ill to go anywhere and we were going straight home. 

He would pass just four weeks later on October 28th. We got 25 years and one month and what a time it was. Now I try to live the kind of life he wanted for us in a new version and in a new space, navigating a new path day by day. We may not be able to choose the events that affect our lives, but we can choose to celebrate and honor the people and places that have graced our lives and those who enter at just the right time.

Categories: Widowed Memories, Widowed and Healing, Widowed Anniversaries, Widowed Milestones, Uncategorized

About Lisa Begin-Kruysman

Originally from New Jersey, artist/writer/blogger Lisa Begin-Kruysman has called Southeast Georgia her home for the past two and a half years. It was during a road trip last October, when she and her husband Rich were returning south after celebrating their 25th Wedding Anniversary, that he became ill, passing just four weeks later. The author of several books, including Dog's Best Friend (McFarland & Co. 2014) mostly inspired by the special human-canine bond, Lisa serves on the Board of Directors for the Dog Writers Association of America and now returns to blogging posting for Widow's Voice with the intention of sharing her personal experience of widowhood with those who know the struggles first-hand and to perhaps help those who struggle to understand the daily challenges facing those who've lost a spouse or significant other.

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Categories
  • Authors

SSI Network

  • Soaring Spirits International
  • Camp Widow
  • Resilience Center
  • Soaring Spirits Gala
  • Widowed Village
  • Widowed Pen Pal Program
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

Contact Info

Soaring Spirits International
2828 Cochran St. #194
Simi Valley, CA 93065

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 877-671-4071

Soaring Spirits International is a 501(c)3 Corporation EIN#: 38-3787893. Soaring Spirits International provides resources with no endorsement implied.

Copyright © 2023 Widow's Voice. All Rights Reserved.