Welcome Washington Post readers! And thanks to the post for publishing my letter to Trisha. It’s nice to be recognized.
What’s even nicer is the outpouring of people that say they feel or have felt the same way, and that somehow the words are comforting or consoling.
Trisha would have been proud of that.
For new readers, this is mostly an adventure travel blog, with a side of cancer support and family grief recovery. Here is a page about us and a page listing most of our adventures.
David, Emma, Lily, Amanda and Trish.
Hello David. I read your letter in the Washington Post and it touched me so it brought tears to my eyes. I am writing a story about my experience- It really is about making major life changes after the age of 50 but encompasses grief on many levels. My nutshell story is, four years ago I married a man who I dated in college in Virginia. We separated then and went on our way- I started a corporate job in the DC area, never married. He went on to graduate school, married, had three daughters and in 2007 lost his wife to cancer. Upon finding out, I sent him a sympathy card; we started corresponding and he was living in Atlanta- I left my corporate job on a buy-out, dated him flying back and both; got married, moved into “their” house with three teen age girls and a dog. Yikes. What have I done?
The girls were still grieving and basically did not want me there. I was still grieving leaving my job, my home, family and friends. Then I came down with breast cancer and went back to Virginia for two months. I am perfectly fine now- it was stage 0 no chemo or radiation. Then I went into menopause. Then my husbands mother died in 2014 and my father in 2015. The dog died in January. all of this in just 4 years Yikes. I want to tell you everything is MUCH better. The oldest is now 24 living in DC, the middle is graduating from Auburn and our relationship is much better- amazing and the youngest is a freshman in college and that relationship is OK. My husband and I are going great with our marriage, traveling a lot, doing fine things and trying to find a place for us to move- I have also been fixing up a house that had been neglected for so long. Not healthy for any of us to be here.
I hope I can publish my story somewhere- maybe in AARP ? HA !
Cindy