A Perfect First Date for a Widow
01/08/2016
Have you started dating since losing your spouse?
Here’s an excerpt from my book, Building A Life You Love After Losing the Love of Your Life about my first date after the loss of my husband.
The Perfect First Date
About two years after Phil passed I had my first date. At least I thought it was a date. Read the rest of this entry »
Enjoy Life and Do Good!
05/06/2016
(The following is an excerpt from my memoir, “Building A Life You Love After Losing the Love of Your Life,” published in 2016, six years after losing my husband, Phil to a brain tumor.) 
I have always been philosophical, looking for meaning and purpose in life and its events. I study life. Phil lived life. He didn’t try to analyze it. That was one of the attributes I loved most about him. Maybe that’s why I’m the one left behind– to analyze, to reflect upon the deeper learning.
About a month before Phil died he was in neuro-ICU Read the rest of this entry »
Buy Yourself Flowers for Valentine’s Day
08/02/2016
Phil always brought me a dozen roses on Valentine’s Day. Brought. They weren’t delivered. He thought that was too extravagant. Every Valentine’s Day he would stop by the grocery store on his way home and pick up a dozen roses. I’d make dinner. We’d exchange cards and have a romantic evening at home.
The first Valentine’s Day after he passed Read the rest of this entry »
Loss and Lessons Learned
29/01/2016
January 12, 2016 a hundred or so of my friends, associates and their guests came to celebrate with me as I launched my memoir, Building A Life You Love After Losing the Love of Your Life at the Georgia Public Broadcasting. I felt like a celebrity and was touched that so many showed up to help launch the book. You can click HERE to read about the event and see photos.
Sadly, my therapist, Robin Kirby, Ph.D. wasn’t able to attend Read the rest of this entry »
When it’s Time to Take Off the Rings
15/09/2015
“It’s been twenty-two months for me,” she said.
We had just disembarked from our cruise ship and were waiting for the train excursion to board when I began talking to the woman beside me. She was petite, attractive and beautifully dressed. Her hair was ‘fixed’ as we say in the South and her makeup skillfully applied. Although we were Read the rest of this entry »
Listening to Bruno Mars sing about the “same bed” feeling a “little bit bigger now” and the heart breaking a little “every time I hear your name” I think about my first Valentine’s Day as a widow. Read the rest of this entry »
My brain tumor widow sister
06/10/2014
Myra and Cynthia Camilleri in Yellowstone National Park
About three months after Phil had been diagnosed with a GBM brain tumor I got an email from a woman named Cynthia. She told me that she was a friend-of-a-friend and had heard about Phil’s diagnosis. Her husband had recently been diagnosed with the same thing and she wondered if we could talk. Of course! We exchanged phone numbers and planned a time for a call. Read the rest of this entry »
The Best Worst Life
19/09/2014
Celebrating my “best worst life”
“You have the best worst life ever!” my friend, June Cline said recently. I laughed and agreed. We were sitting in my high-rise condo with the great view talking about my work projects and various social activities on the calendar. Read the rest of this entry »
Now what am I going to do?
16/09/2014
Many years ago when my nephew, Christopher was a little boy he came to spend the day with Phil and me. Christopher was helping ‘Uncle Phil’ work in the yard. They started by unloading a truck load of dirt into a sink hole in the back yard and smoothing it out. Once that was done they planted some flowers and bushes. Christopher was a great help, working beside Phil all along the way. After each task was finished he would look up at Phil and eagerly ask, “Now what are we going to do?” Read the rest of this entry »
“It ain’t gonna be so easy from the start…”
12/09/2014
Immediately after my husband’s funeral and burial I lost my voice and was sick in bed. My sister and friends were sad to leave me alone but it was time. I needed quiet and rest. Within a couple of days I felt better and accepted an invitation to meet my dear friend, Marilynn for lunch. I was glad to get out of the house and do something sort of ‘normal’ that had nothing to do with cancer, sickness or death. Read the rest of this entry »
Recreating Joy 