An entry for the Blogging A to Z in April Challenge I have a few friends who walk every day. Such a pain. I prefer my couch. But then, yesterday, I shared with one of said friends that our mayor was reinstating his Fitness Challenge of last summer to walk 100 miles in 100 days. …
Category: Health
H is for Hair
An entry for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge in April: Have you obsessed about your hair this past year? With beauty salons and barber shops closed? And your favorite hair dresser or barber out of work? Of course, there were bigger things to be concerned about, but I've talked to a lot of …
Memoir-in-Pieces: Announcing Countdown for Cancer Book
My second book, our experience of my husband's terminal small cell lung cancer, is on its final trajectory toward completion. I started it with his first warning sign that something was awry. And hope to have it published by the holidays. In Part One, Refusing Treatment, I describe how the book is structured: "...my story …
Continue reading Memoir-in-Pieces: Announcing Countdown for Cancer Book
Grief at Twenty-four Months: A Rummage Sale Made Me Do It
On this second anniversary of my husband's death, I've made an unplanned purge of his belongings. Our church's rummage sale, first canceled due to the virus, then reinstated a few months later, prompted me to do it. Just two years and two days ago, Marv directed our daughter to take his cords to our church's …
Continue reading Grief at Twenty-four Months: A Rummage Sale Made Me Do It
Stay at Home Risk – Leaping Out of Your Comfort Zone
“I’m so glad I’ve been a widow this long,” I tell folks when we talk about what it’s like to stay at home during this virus. “I’ve learned to be alone.” I’m moved to say this because of an acquaintance whose husband just died. I envision her doing the necessary paperwork without any proper closure. …
Continue reading Stay at Home Risk – Leaping Out of Your Comfort Zone
Grief at Nineteen Months: Blindside Wipeout and Surprise Mochas
Surprises happen most days in my newish-widow life. Fun things like trying to shovel thick sheets of ice off the driveway when no amount of pushing and grunting will dislodge an inch. Or trying to get excited about making dinner when I don't yet know my way around a grocery store. Or trying to keep …
Continue reading Grief at Nineteen Months: Blindside Wipeout and Surprise Mochas
Grief at Eighteen Months: Contemplation
“Here I sit by a fire pit at a lovely resort in Arizona contemplating...” Three years ago this month I wrote that opening to a blog post. Today I can write the same thing; I’m at the same place. But much of my personal life has changed, mostly related to the loss of my husband …
Gratitude Party on Turning Seventy-Eight
When I turned 72, I used this same "gratitude" blog title. Musing over the past year and a half since Marv died, I can write with the same sentiment today. To catch up, I spent Christmas in Aruba with my daughter and family. You may remember we were there two years ago also, just a …
Grief at Sixteen Months: Traumatic Flashback
“I heard what happened out there,” the male nurse said, standing on my right side as I lay on a bed in the Emergency Room last week. “Is there anything I can do for you?” Sniffling and dabbing my tears, I said, “No, not really. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve been …
Continue reading Grief at Sixteen Months: Traumatic Flashback
Grace Notes #17: Grief at One Year
What was there is no longer there: Not his touch, not his words: "I prefer you without clothes" Not the intimacy, legs and arms intertwined with need Not the pillow talk, eyes searching eyes for meaning The diagnosis threatens to separate us We resist. We persist. We don't give it the power it wants. At …
Write Along with Me 