Alone but not Lonely

He was larger than life…How do I describe 31 years with this grand man? The tears have settled down and yet the nights are lonely as my cute pupster JJ tries to keep me company. The house is quite. I try not to fill it up with incessant noise from the television. I am now flying solo but take Michael with me in spirit everywhere I go and know he would have wanted to go if cancer hadn’t taken him too soon.

We met in 1990 and married in 1991 – it was a time of with cassettes, cd’s, dvd’s and land lines with answering machines. A simpler life. We watched cell phones evolve until they are a computer in the palm of our hands! Our computers exploded in the age of the internet. Email address? Not until the mid 90’s and we stayed retro keeping our AOL accounts.

We went from film cameras to little digitals to where the best portrait photos are from our phones! Now I take for granted I can find so many of my photos online or in my hand, but I have found when it comes to the first 10 years of marriage, they are all snuggled into a photo album and difficult to access and be able share my love for this special man.

Our sunsets started at the family beach house in 1990 and slowly moved up the hill as we grew older and bought our own beach home. Its where we’ve called our permanent address since 2016! Every night that is not foggy gives us another chance at a green flash or spectacularly lit up clouds.

We traveled for wine and pleasure and watched our girls mature and grow. Vietnam for food or at the White House being proud of Shanna in the Air Force!

From winter jaunts with friends to desert jaunts for Moroccan Cooking classes to still being Santa, our life was rich with travel. For those who knew him – life was a grand adventure with little pause to stop. At least we were on the same roller coaster ride together. And we both felt blessed.

We tried to see the World on a World Cruise twice. Margaret River called for four months in 2020…many of you know the story and have read the blogs. We tried again in January but alas Michael died the day after we were to start our cruising adventure out of Miami. Michael had called our travel agent days before he died and set up a world cruise in 2025 for me and we’re planning on Larkin too! She’ll be writing and researching her PhD dissertation and I will be reflecting on my life and still counting my many blessings.

He loved playing lead guitar in the band. Private Reserve was a fun funky cover band that made people get up and dance. We went on six cruises on various itineraries around the world with the band as they lectured on wine and shared their love of wine and classic rock and roll. Each of us knew those trips were very special.

He loved sharing his knowledge and love of wine! He cherished walking in the vineyards and letting others experience old wines in special tastings. Wine was in his genes!

We were so blessed to spend our very last trip together seeing the daughters and grands in North Carolina and Virginia. We are so proud and happy for Shanna to have raised two fabulous boys, Damon and Dominic and that she has a job she enjoys! We are proud of Larkin for wanting to continue her learning at Virginia Tech for her PhD so she can teach and continue to research her chosen subjects. I enjoy time with mom and have pajama parties watching Hallmark movies as often as I can. Life’s too short not to spend time together!!

I’ll keep traveling our country and the world, hopefully with Larkin and the family and I will keep taking sunrise and sunset photos. Each beautiful sunset signifies another day of blessings and is time to pause and reflect.

Enjoy your fall and count your blessings!