write brain widow Blog
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One crisp autumn night last October 2015, I went from wife to widow in an instant with no warning and no chance for goodbye. We knew when we took our wedding vows 10 years ago, that cancer would be the third partner in our marriage. When you accept a disruptive, insidious elephant into your living room, you know anything can happen – and everything did.
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
Quirky Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to a fork in the road – take it”. Duh. That’s a pretty good reason to make this post the last on my Write Brain Widow journey.
I realized that to continue the trip, with complete authenticity, I’d need a new pair of shoes. So I packed up some dark chocolate caramel, a cool new pair of slides and the spirit of my handsome guy, who was the heart of this blog. With no destination in mind and no compass, I’m starting down the next path to see what’s behind door #2.
When I began this blog, I was a brand new widow trying to find my way through the maze of ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
Fandango, This That and The Other wordsmith, tagged me for this “Tell the Story Challenge”, where, when tagged, we are supposed to 1) write something in response to the photo you are given (above), 2) pick a picture of your own (at the end of the post), and 3) tag three other bloggers to do the same. Here’s my take on the image Fandango gave me (and two other bloggers):
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Inspiration. There should be a boatload of it all ar ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
Remember that time you walked through the Hallmark section of the store and your hand automatically reached for the husband, mother or brother card? Then you caught yourself. You remember that person is no longer here and, before there’s a teary cleanup on Hallmark aisle 6, you make a quick detour from the land of schmaltzy cards.
Cleaning out my husband’s night table drawer a few months after he died, I found a Christmas, Valentine and two birthday cards – all unsigned. He had a funky habit of buying several cards for every occasion. Go figure. He gave some, saved some and some he couldn’t d ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
2018 is in the rear view mirror — and I’m really not sorry to see that crazy year go. You? From historic wildfires and a royal wedding to constantly growing political scandals, 2018 was a doozy. Walls and bans were touted, homegrown gun deaths showed no constraint and tropical hurricanes raged. In stark contrast, people marched worldwide in never before seen numbers and the long overdue awareness of sexual harassment continued to fuel the #MeToo movement. The rich have gotten richer while the poor get still poorer.
Yup, 2018 was a whopper – and not always in a good way.
Even in the wors ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
I really like Christmas. Who doesn’t? I’m just so relieved the war on this holiday is over! Whew. I’ve been saying “Merry Christmas” with abandon all these years, never realizing that there was a sinister, pervasive movement afoot. I sent out Christmas cards, put up my creche and topped my ‘baby Jesus birthday cake” with a candle angel. All that time, as I blithely went “over the river and through the woods”, I never realized there was a lurking, sinister plot to steal Christmas. Okay, even in the best of times, I never saw a partridge in a pear tree, but still, who would steal CHRISTMAS?
(ca ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
I won’t tell. Go ahead, drag that sequined, blinking light sweater out of hiding for its annual holiday spin. What else can make you feel so happily over-dressed for success but something so tinselly tacky? Office party or off-center homey soiree, there’s something de rigueur about donning your gaudiest apparel for the sheer fun of it.
The ugly Christmas sweater has become a tradition and traditions like this call out everyone’s most competitive, over-the-top spirit — or temporary insanity. A graphic design unicorn, who dresses more like boring Bonwit (knock-offs) than bohemian, I can pr ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
My version of Gratitude 2.0 includes a few more of my photos as well as a deep thankfulness for my children, grandchildren, abundant friends — and the man whose love and memories will last forever.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who’ve kindly followed my blog these past years. Feel free to add your own words of grateful wisdom!
ENOUGH . . . is a feast.
Gratitude changes everything. (They were pardoned)
Be thankful for family, for friends, for memories and the way love, in many forms, changed your life.
Expect nothing; appreciate everything.The secret to having it all is kn ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
“America is back”. That was the opening line of a recent commercial, and all I could think was “Really? Where was it?”.
As far as I can tell, America hasn’t taken a trip anywhere, though it has meandered a bit. These last few years, the poor country has been pulled in so many directions, it must feel a little like Gumby. With only days left before the mid-term elections, I have to wonder if America is trying to hide until the worst is over. But then, what is the worst? We’ve certainly seen a whole lot of bad behavior, that’s for sure. If America was a kid, it would have been sent to its room ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
I’ve been a goner for an elbow shaped piece of land called Cape Cod since I was 6 years old. It’s always been my happy place. I’m pretty sure, that in less than 5 minutes of meeting me, you’d know more than you ever wanted to know about it. I dragged my husband, who didn’t quite get the attraction, there many times but only in the last few years of our travels did he come to see what drove my addiction. In fact, he fell a little in love himself but our last trip 3 years ago never got a rerun. He died A few short months later.
Last week I finally paid a return visit to ‘my Cape’. I’m not ..read more
write brain widow Blog
3y ago
Public service announcement: your pet peeves are meh. Shocking, I know but most things are relative and sometimes even our riffs with relatives don’t register on life’s Richter scale. My son, brilliant, handsome guy that he is, (but I’m not prejudiced) nailed it perfectly one day when he termed offhanded laments about the obvious lack of beautiful weather as ‘first world problems’. Duh. That term alone puts a lot of things in stark perspective.
The Urban dictionary defines first world problems as those “trivial or minor frustrations from living in a wealthy, industrialized nation that third-wo ..read more