A Springtime Wave of Nostalgia — It’s been half a year since my husband died. Six intense months during which I was filled with an eerie energy that propelled me into simultaneously grieving the immensity of the loss and throwing myself resolutely into the next chapter of my life. It was also a time during which…

I love turning ordinary activities into magic adventures. Life is too short to waste on tedium. So here are two versions of what happened to me last week. VERSION # 1 — The boring drag it might have been I had to get up while it was still dark and…

A Valentine’s Day Story of Remembrance — Over our 34 years together, we never formally celebrated Valentine’s day. It seemed like a trite and manufactured Hallmark event — with the obligatory sentimental cards, the ingestion of sugary chocolate confections, the crowded lines at restaurants, the little red hearts everywhere. “Every day is Valentine’s Day!” you used to…

Dear Raphael — Today, December 10, 2021, would have been your 83rd birthday. You didn’t make it. Three months ago, after a few days in which the pain, the debility and the morphine threw you into terrifying anguish, you ceased being your normal self, and you fell into a deep…

How can you be sad when you’ve had joyous experiences such as this? Today, September 23, 2022, would have been my late husband Raphael’s and my 32nd wedding anniversary. Not that we paid that much attention to the date every year. . . “Every day is anniversary day,” was his…

Last week was our first family reunion in over twenty years. The last time we had all been together was for my father’s memorial service in 2001, in Berkeley, California. At the time, we realized it was the end of an era: the loss of the second parent puts a…

No, this isn’t the title of a musical. It’s my personal link to Queen Elizabeth. Let others pay tribute today and recount the grand narrative of her life, the significance of her long reign, her personality, what her death means for the future or UK, the Commonwealth, the world. This…

A Tale of Endurance and Love — A year ago today, on September 2, 2021, I came up to our bedroom around noon to check how he was doing. His breathing had stopped. He was dead. It was over. When you lose someone you love, the first-year cycle of special days from which the person is absent…

Last week I drove down California’s Highway 1 to Carmel-by-the-Sea. Hugging the rugged coastline through the lifting fog. Marveling at the vistas that open up suddenly after a sharp curve or a steep hill. Alone. With a full heart and thirty years of memories. Does everyone have a special place…