Okay, I’m feeling old today. I got up at the crack of dawn
if dawn came at 7:30---how often can I tell that “joke” before I hear groans
coming out of my computer speakers? Anyway, I did get up at the crack of dawn
to go on a leaf peeping tour. The only problem was I got to the senior center
a week before the bus was due to depart for the half-day trip. I had gotten a
new day planner and I had transferred the information over wrong. Since I
was shiny clean with no place to go I did something that was so totally
out of character and out of my comfort zone that I felt like I should check my
driver’s license to see if I’m still me. What did I do? I called a Gathering
Girl friend at 11:00 to see if she was free to meet for lunch. She is a person who lives on spur-of-the-moment decisions where I’m the opposite. I
plan things out. Down to the minute. I live by the oven timer and the calendar. 7:30 up, breakfast and check the internet; 8:15
shower and dress; 9:15 feed, water and walk Levi; 9:45 leave the house, and 10:00 be on the tour bus---assuming I go on the right day.
My adopted home town is conveniently located half way between
BL’s house and mine so we met at a restaurant that overlooks the river. The
food was good, the service was bad. At one point the waitress even said, “I don’t
know why I keep ignoring you ladies!” By the time she screwed up the check we
were more than ready to take our conversation and laughter out for a walk along
the river. It was a perfect autumn day---bright and warm enough to make us want
to savor the time spent outside and we learned of yet another thing we have in
common besides our sense of humors and politics: We both bought memorial bricks for our husbands in the Recognition
Plaza by the dam. So off we went to find them.
We also discovered we both like Oprah and aren’t afraid to
admit that in public. BL gets her newsletter and she told me about a recent
article titled, What
to Do if you are Still Grieving. The grief counselor who wrote the article
(and a book called Getting
Grief Right) says he tells his clients to write “an honest account of
what happened to you and the one you lost. A grief story exposes the beauty,
pain, and complexity of your emotions.” He recommends grieving people tell
their story in three chapters---the first of which is about how you and the
person you grieve met and in the second chapter we’re to write about the aftermath
and circumstances surrounding the death and funeral. The third chapter is
supposed to be about our lives that unfold from the funeral moving forward and
he recommends keeping a grief journal.
As I read through the article I realized that what the
author, Patrick O’Malley PhD, recommends is exactly what most widows in the
blog community, like me, are instinctively doing. One sentence about writing the third chapter is worth
repeating here: “Although
this chapter has a beginning, it really has no ending—or it doesn't end until
we do. The third chapter is dynamic. It will change over time, but it will not
end.” Where have I heard that before? Lots of places including from a couple of
widows with more than two decades under their belts. From personal experience I know that raw grief dissipates
over time, but a tiny piece of my heart also goes back to grief from time to
time in the form of wistfulness for what might have been. Apparently Mr. O’Malley’s
book has writing prompts to help non-writers tell their stories. He’s been a
grief counselor for 35 years so more power to him if his book can get people who aren’t
used to spilling their guts out on paper to do it. I have my doubts---not about it helping but rather that non-writers with new grief will stick with the project.
Another thread in my life this week is related in a roundabout
way. I had lunch with my oldest niece which is like getting triple cherries on
top of an ice cream sundae if you love cherries and ice cream which I do. My
niece is such an accomplished, well-rounded and truly nice person. She’s a retired
teacher---Special Ed for many years before switching to teaching reading in an
elementary school. In retirement she started an alumni association for a small
town high school. She runs their Facebook page with 1,700 followers, sets up fund raisers with her board
of directors and they raise money to give out as college scholarships. They also
collect and archive old photos and her latest venture is she bought a commercial
popcorn machine so the alumni group can sell popcorn at sporting events. I love stories about people,
like her, who have found a passion project in retirement. Listening to my niece talk I was wishing I had one. Then after reading the above mentioned grief article I wondered if
maybe this blog isn’t my passion project. It may have started out as me documenting my grief
journey but now it give me a purpose, a challenge, a sense of pride and most of
all it prods me to get out of the house and out of my comfort zone so I’ll have something to write
about. ©
