Dick's Den, High St., Columbus OH
Dave and I met at a St. Patrick’s Day party many years ago. We met at the party and then went to Dick’s Den and then spent all our time together.
We met in March 1987, engaged in August, and were married by December all in the same year. It worked out well.
We never made a big deal about that anniversary but we did always have corned beef and your standard St. Patrick’s Day dinner. Dave would make us an Irish Coffee. It was a good tradition.
March 3, 2010 was when Dave had his initial surgery and March 10, 2010 was when he had to have emergency follow-up surgery. He then spent 30 days in the ICU and ultimately 75 days in the hospital. I know he was sedated for much of the time in the ICU and in pain for a good part of it but I find myself missing that time. We were hopeful that all would be well if we could just make it through.
I felt like I lived at that hospital and Dave couldn’t wait to come home. It’s not that I want Dave to relive all of that pain and misery but I do miss those days.
My friends are paying attention now that I’ve started this blog. I’m so happy at the response my writings have received. It’s wonderful.
Now, when I tell someone a story about Dave or what I’m doing now, I hear, “put that in your blog!” That makes me laugh though sometimes I think it’s a great idea.
Also, several of you have said you wanted to share this blog with widowed friends but you weren’t sure if you should. All I can tell you is that a number of people who are going through grief have said that they recognized what I am describing. So, please feel free to share this site. Maybe it might help your friends to know others suffer too. If it doesn’t help, I don’t think it will hurt. I certainly hope not!
Of course, it occurs to me that there are people I haven’t directed to this site. I guess if I’m not emailing someone or chatting on Facebook, I don’t think to mention I’ve started a blog.
One time many years ago, Dave and I went to the Flats in Cleveland with a group of Dave’s former co-workers. We decided to leave the bar we were in and to go to a different one.
When we approached the door,a group of people were blocking the door and talking. Being impatient, I decided I was not standing in line to exit a bar so I pushed my way through the crowd and ended up out on the sidewalk by myself. I stood out there waiting for Dave and everyone else in the group. Apparently I didn’t do this without notice because some guy followed me outside and began to yell at me for being rude. Hmmm, I suspect that I was making rude comments back. Finally Dave made it outside.
Dave was a tall man–about 6’2″–and this man was average height–maybe 5’9″. Dave saw this man yelling at me and said, “Hey, that’s my wife.”
The man stopped, said, “lovely woman” and slipped back inside. I’ve never gotten over that man’s quick thinking.
Poor Dave was always having to rescue me from myself.
I was driving home from work the other day when I realized that I now live in a single income household. Wow. I’m on a single income budget with a double income lifestyle.
I’m lucky that I have enough money to live on but it’s odd that I hadn’t really realized until now that there’s only my income. Not that we lived all that extravagantly before but if I wanted to buy every anti-glare, anti-scratch option available for my eye glasses, I bought them. I’ll probably still buy all those features but maybe I won’t buy the most expensive frames in the store.
The obvious isn’t always so obvious. It’s taking me a while to grasp some pretty fundamental things.