Widowing Empty Nests

Right Down to the Weather

March 29, 2024 3 Comments

Main Photo by Marc Wieland on Unsplash 28 June 2020 So there we have it.Here we are again.Time has rolled around. As it is wont to do.Dates might not have, but the sense, the weight of that Sunday night 52 weeks ago, most definitely has. A hot day in our part of the world with […]

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Commemorating Julia. Seriously? WTF?!?

March 29, 2024 1 Comment

23 June 2020 I feel I honour Julia every day. In some way. Sometimes small ways. Sometimes big ways. What is honouring anyway? Remembering? Talking to her? Talking about her? Sitting quietly and remembering something specific? Nodding to her massive copper bowl of rose petals in the lounge? Forming a twisted, lop-sided smile at one […]

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Incongruities of a Summer’s Day

March 29, 2024 1 Comment

Photo of Montreux by Armand Khoury on Unsplash 22nd June 2020 Just like I always feel a twinge of glee on 21st December (we have reached the shortest and darkest 24-hour period in the Northern Hemisphere – phew and yippee!), I also feel a twinge of sadness on 21st June when we have reached the […]

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Rewriting Friendship Contracts

March 29, 2024 2 Comments

15 June 2020 Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash I had one of those rollicking walloping moments of insight a few days ago after what had been months of sporadic back and forth Whatsapping with a lovely friend, (let’s call her Catherine), who I met decades ago at university. We were really close in those […]

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Parallels

March 29, 2024 2 Comments

Photo by Jonathan Pendleton on Unsplash 7th June 2020 Like just about everyone with a heart on the planet, I have been saddened, distraught and moved to tears many times these past couple of weeks as the upwelling of grief and anger in the US (and the UK, and France, to name just a couple of other places), […]

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Don’t Rush Me

March 29, 2024 1 Comment

It’s not just me – it’s you too 31 May 2020“One of the big things I talk about in the grief world is how other people want to rush grief. They want the old you back, they want things to go back to “normal,” they’ve grown impatient with the way grief lives in you. All […]

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Empty

March 29, 2024 3 Comments

Photo by Sarah Treanor (streanor.com) 23 May 2020 Empty. I am empty. I feel empty. Which one is it? Just empty. Running on Empty? No. Not even. A year ago I did a semi-marathon and it was at the end of one of the hardest weeks in my life (and I have had a shit […]

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New Love in the Time of COVID-19

March 29, 2024 1 Comment

Main picture courtesy of street artist Ruben Rojas, in Los Angeles 17 May 2020 How does a new relationship, even one that truly feels right, profound, rich, loving… how does it survive, how can it survive, in the time of COVID-19?  How can Zoom sessions, WhatsApp calls and texts, photos, and even the occasional letter, […]

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Multiple Versions of Mother’s Day

March 29, 2024 No Comments

10th May 2020 Today is Mother’s Day in North America. And, closer to home, in Switzerland too. The day during which, in former times, people congratulate mothers on being mothers. People bring their mums flowers, make them a meal, take them out for a meal. Or just call them and perhaps send them a card. […]

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Threadbare

March 29, 2024 1 Comment

Main Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash 3 May 2020 I am in a hard place. A fragile space. Hard and fragile. That sounds like “brittle”. That works too. The six weeks of “hard and fast and furious dates” between 27th March and 2nd May are finally over, culminating in Ben’s 21st birthday yesterday. I so wish he’d […]

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