widow

LONELINESS, OR ALONE-NESS...THOUGHTS ON YEAR 3

LONELINESS, OR ALONE-NESS...THOUGHTS ON YEAR 3

Once a widow client of mine said year four was the hardest. Just into year three I find I am struggling with an alone-ness that is visceral, the proverbial “lonely in a crowd” feeling that lives with me, now tugs at my heart, lurks in the recesses of my mind, conjures memories without warning. I’m dreaming often, of Bob, he on the periphery perhaps, or center stage but still obscure, a shadow person whom I long to grasp, to hold, to lean against, to breathe in. The dreams are not nightmares. But they are elusive, painful.

LINGERING SPRING, YEAR THREE, WIDOW MUSINGS…

LINGERING SPRING, YEAR THREE, WIDOW MUSINGS…

Spring comes hard to the Midwest. This morning a 29 mile an hour wind buffets oaks, slants rain horizontal, creeps into window crevices, plummets temperatures to high 30’s. It could snow tomorrow! I clutch hot coffee with both hands. Watch from my bed nature’s onslaught. Defying the golden hope of warmer days, benign winds. Defying a spring when all of Nature’s varied greens abound.

CAR TALES, WIDOW MUSINGS, BEGINNING YEAR THREE…

CAR TALES, WIDOW MUSINGS, BEGINNING YEAR THREE…

My old Jeep Cherokee sits forlorn, hunkered among the gleam and glitz of models who glare new-ness in the afternoon sun. My old Jeep served us well. Never mind leather worn seats, a nick or two on her body. Never mind I’ve put money into her since Bob died, me on yet another learning curve called “car maintenance”.