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Eighteen months into my grieving process and trying to understand...

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Memories...

Lots of memories flood over me. Listening to “Alice’s Restaurant” three times over the holiday - always makes me cry as I remember all the wonderful times shared with Glen over the years. I guess the third time through an “event” without Glen has distanced me emotionally and then wham! The wave crashes down but I ride the wave back with new understanding. Time moves, but memories linger...

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Saturday, November 19, 2011

Saying Goodbye...

Mom turns ninety-one in a few days. I haven’t seen her since my visit in June. Back then I worried because I didn’t feel sad; I didn’t really feel anything. Uncomfortably numb. Deep denial she was dying. Or perhaps denial of my impending grief. I struggled throughout the following months to understand why I didn’t feel sad that she would soon die. Reports of her declining health didn’t awaken my grief. I said, “She’s old, she’s going to die, she’s had a good life...” Last year when Mom turned ninety the family gathered to celebrate with her. This year Mom’s birthday celebration will coincide with Thanksgiving. Mom says, “I just want to live until my birthday...” At last sadness engulfs me, tears fill my eyes, I feel the pain of loss. I will go to visit Mom in a few weeks, not to celebrate her birthday, but for a chance to say goodbye, and to grieve.

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Saturday, November 12, 2011

More waves...

This morning I was overcome with an intense wave of sadness. I think it was triggered earlier this week when I heard what Steve Job's final words were "OH Wow, oh wow, oh wow" just before he died. I've been trying to remember what Glen's last words to me were, but I can't find them in my memories. I remember when our friends and their 3-year old were leaving the house the weekend before Glen died. He said, "Goodbye baby" in response to the 3-year old's goodbye to him. I can't remember him speaking again. So now I grieve for a lost goodbye...
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Saturday, November 5, 2011

Boxes of Glen's books

This week I've gone through four boxes of Glen's books. I found a paperback sci-fi I'd read a very long time ago - The Disappearance - by Philip Wylie. Originally written in the early 1950's and republished in the 1970's (when I probably read it) the book explores what happens on Earth where the men disappear from women's world and women disappear from men's world. As I reread the book my grief is sparked - because in my world now, there is no Glen. I have four more boxes of books to go through. Maybe I'll find other familiar titles and reread them too.
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