Posted: August 17, 2018
I shouldn’t be alive I’ve had too many near death experiences. For example: Driving home alone late at night when it’s coal black without any street lights, and suddenly car headlights come straight toward you. My instincts kick in and I swerve to the right, onto the only small section of roadside that doesn’t have a ditch or danger. I’m safe only by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin. How about the day I rear ended a black SUV and totalled my car? Initially it looked like an unfortunate turn of events but the reality was quite different. In fact, if that SUV hadn’t stopped suddenly to let a young boy cross the road, would I have seen that little boy? It makes me shudder just to think about it. Coincidence or God’s miracle? Since Jack’s death, I look to God for protection, guidance and rescuing. Those promise are for me and…
Posted in: adversity, alone, ask God, care, coincidences, decisions, protection, rescue
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Posted: May 8, 2017
Hope gets us up in the morning. We can get through the rough stuff when we believe that something good is going to happen. But sometimes, out of the blue, grit shows up and stops us dead in our tracks. It may be a call from your Doctor’s office, an accident, divorce, bankruptcy, death or other bad news that changes everything and time stands still. That is what happened to me three months ago. Grit showed up in the way of a panic attack. I’ve only had two panic attacks (after the death of my first husband) so I was familiar with the sensations and breathing my way out of it. But it was a panic attack that would not stop and days later I was diagnosed with PTSD. I knew Jack’s (my second husband) death was traumatic and I thought I was dealing with that deep pain during the…
Posted in: alone, community, death, Families, friends, grief, grit, happy, Hope, Kindness, panic attacks, trauma, trust
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Posted: February 7, 2017
I call it my “Black Friday.” Throughout the three weeks of my husband Jack’s death and funeral, my house was a revolving door with family, friends, neighbours and super sized casseroles. Then the day came when I drove my last child to the Kelowna airport and walked through my front door. Empty house. Alone. Then came Friday. The sky was heavy with winter gloom and grief stabbed at me with knives that shook me to the core. Never before had I experienced the depth of such pain, darkness and “aloneness”. I was startled when my cell phone rang and then heard the gentle and loving voice of a dear friend. Once I heard the emphatic tone in her voice all I did was sob. And sob. She didn’t try to console me, fix me or make things better. She simply cried with me and then listened. Once I was able…
Posted in: alone, death, empathy, friends, Friendship, funeral, grief, listen, pain, pray, relationships, sympathy
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