The Healing Journey

December 20, 2024

Ann was tired of hearing people say, “Get on with your life.” It had been more than two years since her beloved husband Paul died and after 70 years of marriage, the idea of “moving on” can seem incomprehensible. Sometimes it felt she was living day-to-day, being sustained by her children. Many of the things she had done before just weren’t the same.

She’d tell you if you sent her a Christmas card or a birthday card, that she was sorry, but it was difficult for her to send cards out. It made her too emotional. Over the years, she had saved every one of the cards that her husband sent her, from the time they met. Countless cards for anniversaries, birthdays, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas — there were many times that he sent her cards just to say, “I love you.”

So now, whenever it was a grandson’s birthday, daughter’s anniversary, or graduation she made the effort and signed the car with “Love” and her name along with a drawing of a red heart for the husband she had lost but who was still in her heart. This was her way of saying to everyone that they were still a couple, even though one of them was in Heaven.

Many of us who have lost someone we love, still sign our cards and include the name of a son, daughter, husband or wife. It’s our way of keeping their memory alive for people who may not even have known them.

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