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herbiggirlpants

Tag Archives: death

magic…

11 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, cancer, CancerCare, daffodil, death, George, loss, magic, pin, relief, widow

been thinking about cancer quite a bit lately…

  
picked these daffodil pins up on Thursday and left them at the office for my colleagues to wear during April… the daffodil is a symbol of strength and courage in the fight against cancer… 

the colleague we recently lost had her birthday in April and I’ve been thinking of her a lot…

also, the many others in my life who have succumbed to the disease… my mom, mother-in-law, family friends… and those who have survived…

it has been nearly four years since my surgery… the cancer is all tied up with George’s death as the diagnosis was just weeks after… 

I am doing very well but the magic number is five years… wonder how I will feel when that last appointment at CancerCare happens… 

I remember how shocked I was at the relief when the doctor called to advise that there was no cancer left following the surgery… I had thought that I wasn’t worried about it at all, lol… wrong…

orchid bloom opening…

 

cards…

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized

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anniversary, big girl pants, cards, death, George, kind, memory, scan, tears, widow

saw a memory on Facebook a few days ago about my writing thank you cards after George died…

so many people did so many kind things for all of us during those difficult days…

didn’t know what to do with all the beautiful words and cards that were sent to us…

my son-in-law took all of them and scanned the fronts and backs into the computer… what a clever idea…

was able to keep the memories and not have piles of paper gathering dust… and I can go in and look at them now and again… which I did tonight when I was taking a picture of the scans… 

 

lovely to read the heartfelt comments… cried for quite a while…  

was reminded of this a few days ago when I was changing out the drawers in the living room table as I was getting ready for Easter…

the sweet valentine card that my colleagues presented to me was there and I wasn’t prepared to just throw it out…

  
took a few photos, after reading it again, and then scanned it into the computer…  makes putting the original into the recycling so much easier…

  

we write notes of appreciation for our colleagues on a fairly regular basis and pop them into their box… I wrote one for a colleague a few days ago… 

it is wonderful to go into your own box and read a great note… particularly on a day when things aren’t going as well as they could, lol…

I write one for each staff person each year on the anniversary of my starting… I know how much I appreciate hearing their kind words and want them to know how much I appreciate them individually… 

as a society I don’t think we write near the number of cards that we used to…
 

 

anniversary…

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized

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anniversary, beloved, big girl pants, butterfly, death, dye, jeans, orchid, widow

took a few pictures of the orchid this morning…

  
the blossoms are now falling each day…

  
still beautiful in their own way…

wore my new jeans today and everyone loved them…

  
some of the detail on the back…

  
all day I kept trying to figure out what was making my hands blue… must have washed them a dozen times to get the colour off…

finally mentioned it, only to learn that I should have washed the jeans with salt or vinegar before wearing them the first time… it was the dye that was rubbing off on my hands, lol… clear that I am not a jean connoisseur… good thing I learned this before sitting on my couch, lol…

been thinking of my beloved more than usual… tomorrow marks four years since his death… seems to me that the week or so before the anniversary is more difficult than the actual day…

looking through photos I decided on this one for my Facebook profile picture…

  
we had spent a lovely time at the zoo with our youngest grandson and just came out of the butterfly garden… he was tired and had a seat on the lovely bench while trying to convince the little guy to join him… doesn’t he look like an angel…

I miss him…

health…

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, loss, nature, technology, Uncategorized

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295 York, 65, beloved, big girl pants, death, family, health, March, moments, photographs, sadness, sickness

been thinking a lot about folks who have been dealing with health issues, either sick or injured…

so many people I know have struggled with miserable colds and flu… both of my girls were ill and got sent home on Monday… many friends are just beginning to get over various issues…

the beginning of March is a difficult time for me… can’t help but think back to the loss of my beloved… I’ve been inundated with Facebook memories of things we did in the days just before his death…

have also been working on a project where I’ve been looking through my photographs… am always surprised at how much I have forgotten and the pictures are great reminders of special moments…

  
came across this picture of a Chihuly glass fixture at 295 York… George and I had dinner there a few times when it was still the Lobby on York…

lost my parents when they were both just over 65… George’s dad died around that age and he didn’t make it to 65… for a while I have been wondering if I will make it to 65… looks like I will, lol…

I am feeling healthy and in better shape than I’ve been for years…

although there is sadness, life is good…

pain…

11 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by sulis303 in family, health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized

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beauty, big girl pants, death, Japanese Maple, pain, preparations, sunset

took a picture of my Japanese maple this morning… wanted a baseline for the next few months as the leaves start to produce again… poor little thing struggles every fall when it comes into the house…

  
lots of conversation tonight about some of the things I learned after George’s death… the discussion brought back some of the pain from those early days… 

we talked about the importance of sharing our thoughts about our final wishes with our family and friends – if and when to pull the plug – what we would hope for in a funeral/memorial/ gathering – where needed information is located… made me think that I should review the when mom dies file that I’ve prepared for the girls… when the time comes it should be as easy as possible for them…

  

on our way home caught this great shot of the sky… excellent to have things to remind me of my wonderful life…

goodbye…

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by sulis303 in health, life, nature

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big girl pants, death, George, goodbye, Paulo Coelho, Pause

this morning I read an article that touched me…

it mentioned a quote from Paulo Coelho:

If you are brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello.

made me wonder if I have to let go of George… and exactly how I would do that…

not sure I want to let him go, but maybe it is the sadness that I must let go…

how do I remember the special times and not feel the sad moments…

thought that I’ve been doing fairly well…

tomorrow marks three years since his death… trying to figure out how to deal with the day…

for the last few years I have had dinner with all of my kids… this year they have things happening and we can’t gather without a lot of complex organizing, so I said we wouldn’t… 

I am sure I will speak with my daughters at some point in the evening but felt I/we needed to be moving forward…

maybe that’s why the quote touched me…

Monday was a very bad day… he died on a Monday… 

we will see what tomorrow brings…



memories…

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by sulis303 in health, life

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beloved, big girl pants, death, memories

had a conversation recently about someone who had lost their partner a few months ago…

brought back all kinds of memories…

thought about the requirements that had to be sorted out… the documents I had to complete… the money grabs that seemed to be part of the process… the feeling of drowning in paperwork and worry…

for the last few months I’ve been thinking about getting the house in order… getting rid of stuff that I don’t want or need… I want to make it as easy as possible for my girls when the time comes for them to deal with my stuff…

I sure do miss my beloved…

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health…

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by sulis303 in life, Uncategorized

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circle, death, fragile, health

thinking of so many in my circle who are dealing with death and family health concerns…

such a reminder of the fragile nature of life…

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green…

17 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by sulis303 in life, Uncategorized

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big girl pants, death, green, money, processes, St. Patrick's Day

St Patrick’s Day… all about green…

wore green clothes and took a green treat for my colleagues…

was talking with someone about all the steps you have to go through when someone dies…

still wondering how you find someone who knows what you need to do… it felt like I bumbled my way through the process and luckily made it without any huge mistakes…

the list of what to do from the Funeral Home covered a few of the things that had to be done, but was certainly not complete for my situation…

so much of it had to do with another green thing – money…

felt like every organization I was in touch with wanted some…

insurance companies that wanted specific information which had to come from the doctor and which had to be paid for… Land Titles, who needed me to pay them to change the registration of the house… the leasing company that required a safety check so that the car could be put into my name… and so on…

when someone dies, a lot of green gets used up…

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loss…

10 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by sulis303 in Uncategorized

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40 years of marriage, beloved, big girl pants, death, devastated, loss, one step at a time, stay positive

a friend lost her mom… it was shocking and awful… didn’t matter that she was in her nineties…

when you lose a loved one, you aren’t prepared, even if you think you are…

we talked for quite a while and she mentioned the most difficult part was sharing the information with her children, and then supporting them as they processed it…

me and my girls...

my girls and I this summer… they are such amazing young women…

brought to mind the very difficult phone calls I had to make when George died… one of my daughters lives here and the other lived at the coast…

I had to pull myself together and call them… I remember calling the one here in the city and praying that her husband was home because I knew she was going to dissolve into a million pieces… and thank goodness, he was home and answered the phone… I was able to know that he was beside her to hold her when she heard the news… I don’t even remember how she told our grandsons…

then I had to call my daughter at the coast… I knew that her husband was across the country and she had no one at home for support… I didn’t even have a friend’s number who I could call to go and be with her… we had to make decisions about whether she would come home right away or wait for the storm that was pounding the coast to abate… would she contact her husband who was writing an exam the following morning or wait until he was finished… would he come back to their home and travel with her here, or would he travel directly here from where he was…

the kids here came immediately to the hospital, although while I waited it seemed like it took forever… the daughter from away had to wait until the next day to come, and her husband did come directly here… finally we were all together…

and then we took one step at a time to get everything done that was needed…

speaking with my friend, I realized that I had blocked out making those phone calls…

in less than a month it will be two years since my beloved died… I am working very hard to stay positive and not fall into a funk… when I start to feel sorry for myself I put on those big girl pants and think about all the special times we had over 40 years… I am amazed that after this amount of time I can still feel devastated…

a young friend recently asked me how I was doing and I burst into tears… not that great I guess, lol… some days it feels as though everyone has moved on with their life… and I have too, until the gaping hole opens…

truly I have been blessed, and that helps me take the next step…

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