From the Heart

I hope you missed my missives/blogs these past few months. I missed writing them.

It’s not that I didn’t have a lot to tell, I was just busy adjusting to a different schedule; different activities, different places, different people. I’m sure you know what that requires. The best news: all of the above is GOOD. The difficult part is the mental and physical adjustments to change.

What have I been up to?  How has life changed for me lately?

First: I have transitioned the Sister to Sister organization, the non-profit that I founded in 1999, to Cedars Sinai Hospital and closed the doors here in Washington.  It was time to do this.  More on this soon.

I also finished writing the main text for my memoir!  This was truly a labor of love and a journey through my experiences and memories.  I’ll also share more about this soon.

And finally, I took a wonderful trip to New York.

It’s not that I haven’t experienced major changes in my life before…I have!  But the difference, now, is that I don’t have my partner to share them with me.

I realize that, although I have always loved change and challenge, from the age of seventeen, I have always had someone to share these experiences with, someone I could turn to. This person rode the ups and downs with me; he was on the other end of the phone, if needed.

Of course, when we did talk about my ideas, challenges and change, I always started the conversation with, “What are you doing?” not with me telling him my problems. Once I began discussing the topics, he would offer some suggestions and then say, “Why do you ask me what to do when you’re going to do what you want anyway.”

We would both laugh, and I would respond, “You’re right. But I always want to know what you think.”

And I would feel better and move ahead with my plans.

That person was my husband of 64 years.

Not until now have I understood what a vital part of my life this person was. I always thought I was so “independent.”

Well, I guess I wasn’t quite as independent as I thought.