I spent a great amount of time yesterday continuing to clear out the basement. Nine months after losing my wife of 50 years I decided it was time. So, for the last few weeks I have been bringing box after box, after box up the stairs, sorting through what the kids might want, what should […]
Letter: One Cup Where There Used to Be Two
A twice-broken heart, an anticipated future that does not come to fruition, dreams dashed, one cup where there used to be two, where to go, what now? David of biblical history answers. ‘My times are in your hands. You will hide me in the shadows. There, as under the arbor, I will find safety, and […]
Letter: The Two Guests
As purposeful as weeping is to the one grieving the loss of a loved one, so needful are the thorns on the rose blooming in the garden. Introspection for the sufferer, protection for the flower. “It takes all sorts of weathers to make a year, and all tend to the same issue, of ripened harvests […]
Letter: The Stepping Stones of Suffering
We were there to repair the stepping stones and bricks that comprised the path through the gardens. However, a storm was brewing. Miles out to sea the ominous black mountain of clouds had gathered. Even from where we stood, we could see cascading down its sides a grey avalanche of drenching rain. The sun, the […]
Letter: ImPACT
She was attractive – tall, a redhead, and slender. Like a flower in a greenhouse, peeking down the road, she had flagged down the passing motorist. That’s when the nightmare began. Now she stood in a long line of mostly women in a hallway running past courtrooms. At the very end of that tunnel comprised of […]
Letter: ‘Ditto’ As Used With Devotion
The day before Valentine’s Day, one year ago, the Oncologist turned from the computer screen where she had been reading my wife’s report, and she said, looking at my wife laying there on the tilted-back exam chair and then at me sitting nearby, holding my wife’s hand: “You’ve reached the end of the journey. You’ve […]
Letter: “The Decision of the Flower” – A Valentine’s Day (and everyday) Plea
March 19 this year will be the first day of spring, same as last year. March 19 of last year my wife who was Dutch – who thus not surprisingly loved tending to her tulips – left her garden here for her heavenly garden up there after tending to me, her husband, for 50 years. […]
Letter: The Day We Set Sail
She had to choose. One foot was on the dock, her other foot on the gunnel of our little sailboat pram that was departing in the gentle breeze. As the gap steadily widened, I shouted from where I manned the tiller, “Jump! Now!” With terror etched in her young face, our daughter leapt and landed […]
Letter: He Walked Her Home
Yesterday, just over 10 months after having lost my wife of 50 years to cancer, I designed our granite companion grave marker. Though my name will be engraved there, right below hers, at the moment there is no date after the dash for me. But there is for her. Do you know how hard that […]