After many years of not seeing much of each other, my friend Jane and I are now working on meeting every three months or so. Jane lives in Orange County, which is on the other side of Los Angeles from where I live. So far, we have been to the Getty Museum and to William S. Hart park, where Rachael works. And on Thursday we met at Mission San Fernando Rey, which is the one I never saw on my quest to visit all of the southern and central California missions.
We actually didn't see much of this one either. I was tired when I arrived and so happy to see Jane that all I wanted to do was sit, rest, and talk.
We were able to briefly visit the church, which was large and very beautiful. Funerals were held there so we couldn't stay long.
A couple of different classes of fourth graders were also visiting the mission. Jane told me that studying the missions are part of the 4th grade curriculum here in California. The kids were beyond polite and well-behaved and, of course, so very cute.
As a result of the rain we finally got here, the canyon is turning green, temporarily, and that includes my yard and fields and the hills too. I saw yellow flowers beginning to bloom in the foothills of the canyon mountains. A busy time ahead for me, dealing with all this sudden growth.
Last year, I missed the A to Z Challenge, the one where you post every day, except Sundays, in April. A while back, I decided to join in this year's fun. I never wrote anything more than a day or two ahead of time when I participated in the previous challenges, but this time I decided to prepare ahead. So I have been busy with that.
My subject is serious and I wanted to take time to think about each post. I decided to write about this past year, my first in over 30 years without Errol. Borrowing the title of my theme from a book by Stewart O'Nan, called Emily Alone, a lovely story about a widow in Pittsburgh and her old dog, I'm calling this journey: Me, alone. Life after loss. I have written almost all the posts, maybe 10 are left, and I think I'm doing OK, sharing the sadness and also the surprising joys of the past year.
It's just my story, a story of how I set out to deliberately create a new life for myself. There are so many of us out there, us widows, and we all grieve in our own unique ways. This A to Z is for me. I must admit I was depressed and sad as I wrote it, but I believe that in the long run I will be so glad that I did.
