Ponderings...

       Richard was born four years and Joanne two before I. Richard died at age 62 in 1997 and Joanne at age 82 in 2018. Now I am older than both. That's hard for me to grasp. Richard was such a huge presence in my childhood as 'big brother' the thought that now I'm decades older than he feels very strange.

     In my frequent rambles in the cemetery I note the dates of death on the grave markers observing how long the surviving spouse lived after the first of the couple died. There are widows buried there who lived as a widow longer than she was married. 

    Life in the land of grief is so strange. How can there be normalcy after such drastic loss as the death of a spouse? Yet, life goes on and I have learned to live in the presence of that absence. Grief now mostly sits on the back burner only occasionally bursting into flame at some surprising spark. 

Takk for alt,

Al

Richard's middle name was Bergh, my mother's maiden name and the name of the cemetery where is buried.