In Memory of....

I was reminded again yesterday that life is short.


A vehicle accident took the life of a 51 year old man and left his 47 year old wife a widow.


This couple left our community after 10 years to retire early in their childhood home town. And then...not really to retire as they both just chose different, passion filled, dream type careers.  8 months later their dreams destroyed. Their chosen paths washed away. Lives drastically changed. Hearts forever broken.


In a most beautiful obituary that his now widowed wife wrote, from the depths of her soul. The broken place where she dug deep to pen the words. Where she, for a moment, put her pain away and wrote her final tribute to the love of her life. At a time when all she could do was cry. All she could feel was gut wrenching, can hardly breath, can't focus, aching emptiness type of pain. At a time when she wanted to turn to him and have him hold her and tell her it was going to be okay. And yet her arms remained empty.


At this broken and wounded place she lay all her heart and her thoughts and her forever kind of love on paper. Not processing the words. Not caring what others may think. No thought to length.


She penned the words that her soul felt. She thought of others in his life. Others who held this man in high esteem with great respect, love and admiration. She took a moment from her own life altering grief and felt the pain of his family, his friends and his two young adult sons; her children.


In her writings she expresses with emotion more than words, her pride in all that her husband of 28 years accomplished. She is proud of his heritage. She is proud of his love of extended family. She is proud of his work ethic, his ability to provide for his family. She is proud of the children he raised, the boys who will remember fondly the father that loved them with every breath he took.


At this most shocking, life altering event this precious young widow searched her heart for words of comfort. Words she had heard many times in the last 28 years. Words that had got them through other tough times. Other times of grief. Other times of shock. Other times of loss. Words that he obviously lived by and encouraged others with. Words that describe the personality of her now gone husband.

"I know if he could say anything to us to make it easier, he would say better start putting first things first, cause when your hour glass runs out of sand you can’t flip it over and start again. Take every breath for what it’s worth. Don’t Blink."


My heart aches. I weep for her loss. I weep for the emptiness that envelopes her. I weep for her broken heart. I weep for the sorrow that only she can feel, the grief that no one else can truly share. I weep for her loneliness, I weep for her children, their empty and broken hearts, the future events they will not share with their dad.


And then I weep for myself in my 48th year, my own 51 year old husband of 29 years, my own two young adult sons and my own broken heart. I weep for the carefully laid out plans of our own dreams, our own newly carved path. I weep with sorrow. I weep with joy. 


I hold onto the joy, the dreams, the goals, the excitement of the journey. The path that goes forward. I listen again to the voice of direction. I put fears aside. I take another step. 


I was reminded again yesterday that life is short.....


What will you do different today?


Blessings be richly yours as you let go of all that doesn't matter and hang on to all that does ♥ LR