AKA "The Writing Woman"
Now that I’m retired, I love taking writing courses. They challenge me and make me dive deeper into my feelings – and they also encourage me to make more time to write. In my current course, called “Writing to Heal,” this was one of today’s prompts. What was a time you felt some connection to…
When I was a never-married single mother in my late thirties, I went back to school, hoping to start a career so I could better support my son. Since I loved literature, I took every English Literature class available. I was a hopeless romantic. Things hadn’t worked out with my son’s father, we never married,…
Yesterday I woke up prepared for the worst. It was the eighth anniversary of losing Rick to lung cancer. But I realized that, as the years go by, the major events aren’t as painful as the loss of the little daily things that I miss about being with him. I spend a few days of…
I’ve had years to study the effects of grief and just about everything written about it. And one of the things that surprised me when I first became a widow was how much fear was a part of grief. After Rick died, my biggest fear was that I wouldn’t have the strength to go on…
In the eight years since Rick’s been gone, I’ve tried dating and managed to find three men who were potential partners. Yet, here I sit alone again, mulling over what went wrong with each budding relationship. One moved out of town for work. One returned to his ex-wife. The third is an on-again, off-again relationship…
As a writer, I spend a lot of time alone, and a lot of time thinking – mostly contemplating life. Tonight, the holiday dinner is over, the kids and grandkids are all off on their merry way, and I sit here pondering how it feels to be alone again in my quiet home. It feels…
I’ve been excited about my latest adventure. The local library invited me to have a table with my books at their annual local author fair. I’ve never done it before – never even considered it, mostly because I never considered myself an author. I know I’m a writer. I know I’ve published books, but I…
It’s that time, again. The ten-day period between the anniversary of Rick’s death and his birthday, the day we held his celebration of life. August 13th to August 23rd, 2017: the most painful time of my life. After seven years, it doesn’t hit as hard. Well, at least that’s what I thought. But I realized…
July 12th would have been our twenty-seventh wedding anniversary. In the seven years since Rick died, I’ve gone through many different stages of grief, and I’m a different woman than that distraught widow from years ago. Instead of sadness over his death, I more often look back feeling thankful for experiencing our life together. Instead…
I reported for jury duty a couple weeks ago. It’s probably my tenth time in the past 45 years since I was first summoned in my early twenties. However, this was the first time I’ve served that we were allowed to bring cell phones into the courthouse. Quite a perk! Other years, I was in…