Widowing Empty Nests

Sabre-Toothed Tigers on French Country Roads

April 24, 2024 No Comments

Random Sabre-Tooth Tiger Image off the Internet. Other photos my own. 14 February 2021 I am on a French TGV, leaving behind me my parents who live south of Perpignan. The train left the station about 25 minutes ago and I am already in the lagoon-rich part of South East France, pink flamingos on either […]

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Hello Wall

April 24, 2024 2 Comments

Shirley Valentine Images from various Internet sites 4th February 2021 One of my favourite ever films is Shirley Valentine. It came out in 1989 when I was 22 and had already been in relationship with Mike for two years. I remember feeling so sure that I would not while my life away, or stick around […]

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Terry, I wish I’d loved you while you were still alive

April 24, 2024 No Comments

2 February 2021 I like to claim that “I don’t do guilt”. It’s not that “I don’t do guilt at all”, it’s more that I try to catch any guilt quickly and figure out if the guilt is bringing anything of value. Mostly it’s not. Same same with regrets. I like to say “I don’t […]

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A Wave of Fresh Green Grief Amidst the Snowy Whiteness

April 24, 2024 1 Comment

All photos my own, 24 January 2021, above Darbella, French Jura 25 January 2021 Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day, brilliant and bright and fresh and sparkling after the recent snowfalls. Medjool and I had already decided that we would head up into the Jura for a cross-country ski. He knows the region better than […]

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Exercising Optimism in Griefland

April 24, 2024 No Comments

Photo by Marian Kroell on Unsplash 19 January 2021 I often feel very fortunate that my professional and personal lives, interests and development, are so inextricably linked. I cannot actually imagine it being any other way. I learned early on that in order for me to be able to do my professional work effectively, I […]

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Yes, I know David Bowie died five years ago

April 24, 2024 2 Comments

11 January 2021 Main picture taken in 1973, perhaps 1974, soon after our move to Brussels ….and so did my brother Edward. I also know that this is a blog site about widowing, and I am widowed. But when my husband Mike died in April 2017, I had recently lost both my youngest brother Edward […]

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Wise and Kind Babes

April 24, 2024 2 Comments

Picture from August 2020 in Camargue 3 January 2021 There has been a recurring question asked of me these past 18 months or so, which is both the time since Julia died, and also the time since I have (formally) been in a relationship. Oddly the question is not about Julia, nor about how I […]

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Shattered Christmases

April 24, 2024 2 Comments

Random image of broken Christmas tree 23 December 2020 Weird shit happens at this time of year. Weird shit gets said at this time of year too. It feels like it is just a stream of obscene extremes. So many types of polarities and tensions, to hold and somehow absorb. To try not to get […]

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Missing and MISSING

April 24, 2024 No Comments

16 December 2020 Main image by Sarah Treanor on streanor.com One of the (many) difficult things about loss and grieving is that while it makes up an inordinately large portion of my life (and is sometimes all-consuming), it is hard to express, lonely to experience, and frustrating in its unpredictability. I rarely feel understood except […]

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My First Podcast – On Living With Loss (What Else?)

April 24, 2024 No Comments

14th December 2020 Image by Matt Botsford on Unsplash My first ever podcast 2020 has been the year of being on webinars and panel discussions about grief and loss and suicide and more but this is the first podcast, and I think it’s worth sharing.

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