For the five weeks following Gordie’s death, I hid. But when it’s your best friend’s birthday, it’s time to come out of hiding. #girlsnightout, #grieving, #grief, #landoftheliving, #running, #girlfriends, #whitewine
Every kid would love to throw the first pitch at Opening Day for their Little League…except when you get asked only because your Dad died. #baseball, #littleleague, #openingday, #grief, #kidsgrief
Five years later, I am surviving the death of my husband. My sons are surviving the loss of their Dad. But I am still running through grief. #running, #survivinggrief, #grief, #kidsgrief, #fiveyears, #movingforward, #lifegoeson
For the first several weeks after Gordie died, I left his beloved F-150 truck at the Estate. After a few weeks, I needed the truck to get some bigger items, like Nathan’s bike, from the Estate to my parents’ house. So, I had my Dad drive me to the Estate one afternoon after work so that I could get some stuff and the truck. What I didn’t expect was pop tarts and starbursts. #poptarts, #starbursts, #kidsgrief, #running, #grief, #Ford, #F150
One rainy day at the end of March, there was a message on my voicemail from the Sergeant in charge of the investigation into Gordie’s death. Suicide had been ruled out but there was otherwise no clue on how Gordie had fallen into the pool and died. He would like to send in the divers.
Having your husband die in the town where both of you grew up has its upside and downside. The upside is that if your friends and family still live there, you have the platinum level support system. The downside is that a lot of people know you, know your husband, and know both of your families. It quickly became widely known that the cause of Gordie’s death was a mystery. And the rumor mill started. Immediately. #gossip #Danville #raybanaviators #rumorhasit
Here I was, a widow desperately in the mood, and desperately wanting my husband, and there was nothing I could do about it. It was beyond ironic. My advice to people is don’t brush off your significant other too much. Don’t think you can always have sex tomorrow night. Because sadly, I learned that there is not always a tomorrow. #fiftyshadesofgrey #nottonight
I drove to the Mortuary with a slightly sick feeling in my stomach. The Director had my four urns on his desk. My beautiful cousin had created the most incredible urns for us. There was one big one with a Raiders logo on it. The second urn contained the other half of his ashes and was a disposable one so that we could scatter them in a place with special meaning. The other two urns were tiny little replicas of the big Raiders urn…one for each of my sons. #memorialgallery.com #urns #Raiders #grief #buryingmyhusband
It sounds ridiculous but I wanted to stay living in a year in which my husband actually lived. Moving into a new year felt like moving on and I was not ready to move on. #newyearseve #notreadytomoveon #grief
I have strategically created a balance of traditions that are a mix of traditions BGD (before Gordie’s death) and traditions AGD (after Gordie’s death). Even though I felt like clinging to the past in that first Christmas of our new life, I felt it was important to create some new traditions to help my sons and me move forward. Five years in, my sons look forward to the old and the new traditions. #Christmastraditions #Christmasafterloss #Choosetocontinue #Helpmykidsmoveforward #Christmassucks