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Taking Stock in 2023
January 25th marked the seventeenth month since my wife of 51 years transitioned to the Other Side. I recently reviewed what I have gone through during that time—what has worked for me and what has not. I should say at the outset that I am in a much better place than I was a year…
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Knowing That You Care
I had a delightful surprise yesterday. The hospice where I volunteer as a minister to men who are caregivers and widowers asked me to co-facilitate a grief support group they had recently formed after over a year of not providing one. The first of eight meetings was yesterday. There were 22 attendees, plus the facilitator…
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New Beginnings
During the last four months of 2021, I was mourning the loss of my wife, Jan, to a fatal stroke after 26 months as an invalid resulting from three other strokes. I went to Tennessee to visit my sister two months after the funeral, and went to Colorado over Christmas to visit with my son…
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Pathfinder
To a man, we are stepping into Christmas with much trepidation or resignation. Without our wives, it is, for some, a terrible time and, for others, at best, a melancholy time. For me, this year will be melancholy. But I told my grief therapist today (whom I still see twice a month) that there is…
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Winter Rain
It’s December in St. Louis, Missouri. Winter has arrived. With the winter comes days of winter rain. In years past, my wife and I actually enjoyed days like today (when we did not have to get outside). I’d light a fire. We’d make some tea or coffee, and just be together. Many people find days…
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Legacy
My wife, Jan, was a teacher for twenty years. At that time, I knew many of her students and was well aware of the tremendous impact she had on them. She taught “gifted” kids at the middle school level. Many of her peers marveled at how much she loved to teach this age group. Part…
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Page Garden
My late wife, Jan, had two favorite places on earth. At the top of that list was Christ Church, the Oxford University college where she studied for her Ph.D. in theology. Second on that list was the Church of St. Michael and St. George in suburban St. Louis, where we first entered the Episcopal Church. …
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Autumn Leaves
In some of my previous articles, I mentioned how I was a member of some cover bands during my teenage years. It was the sixties. Growing up in Nashville, the influence of country music surrounded me, yet it did not interest me. I was a big Beach Boys and Beatles fan (among others). Yet, to…
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The Fourth Turn
By Michael K. Burroughs I had just turned 71 when my dear wife, Jan, passed away. We were four months shy of our 52nd Anniversary. Her doctors never expected her to make it to our 50th, following her third stroke that made her an invalid. They expected another stroke at any time, as she had…
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