Today is Christmas. Tomorrow, December 26, marks the eighteenth month of Joe’s passing. I love that it’s not today. Not Christmas. We get to have this day. Everything has changed, and yet everything remains the same. Since losing Joe, I haven’t altered or moved much of anything in the house. It’s kind of strange even to say because I’ve always…
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Just one year ago, I sat outside the fence of the Belle-Claire Fairgrounds in Bellville, IL, in the Hardee’s parking lot. I sat there reflecting on all of the years that have passed since Joe and I first stepped into that building for the Country Treasures Craft Show so many years ago. Jan and Cara, the promoters, had convinced me…
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The day before Joe died, I was sitting in the parking lot at Sams Club drafting a text to all six kids. I planned to tell them about their dad’s depression—not the cause—but the severity. I had been planning to do that earlier in the week, also. I’d taken him to the Hamilton Center to have an “intake” done so that…
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“Load the car and write the note. Grab your bag and grab your coat. Tell the ones that need to know; we are headed north.“ -The Avett Brothers But there is no “we” this year, only me. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, or so it seems. For years now, Joe and I have traveled…
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As I maneuvered through the electroshock therapy at the end of the Tough Mudder course and stated (out loud) that “This was going to be easy!” the attendant on duty shouted into his microphone… “DID YOU HEAR WHAT SHE JUST SAID!? SHE SAID IT’S GOING TO BE EASY! I DON’T WANT THIS TO BE EASY! I WANT YOU TO MAKE…
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