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Johnny

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  1. Gwenivere said - I noticed when I was driving yesterday that I have never seen so many people walking dogs. I noticed it immediately when I arrived in Seattle. Lots of dog walkers and runners out in all sorts of weather! Steep hills! Every day is leg day. πŸ™‚ Chalk one up for Seattle! Very nice.
  2. Thank you Gwenivere, KayC, and Kieron I am considered as an essential employee since we are an important contractor for the USCG and Navy ships. I am very grateful to be allowed to continue to work my job back home in South Carolina after finish 14 days of home quarantine upon return. I am fortunate to be going home early this week on April 19th instead of April 30th. I am very excited although I expect I'll burn up from the heat since I've acclimated to the Pacific North West temperatures of winter. Sixty degrees feels like I am burning up and I can't imagine what eighty degrees would feel like again. My company is paying our Seattle crew to home quarantine for the two weeks when get back home. Everything is turning out better than expected for me and I am grateful for the opportunity and experience I've gained while working in Seattle. Glad to hear from everyone! The days are getting better and I still remember to tell Rene'e I love her every morning. Stay safe and God Bless
  3. KayC- Yes I can go outside and thank goodness I will have my fur babies too! Home quarantine for two weeks by myself is a good idea since they say 1/4 of the people who have it can be walking around and not even know it. Don't want to take a chance with the people I love. It will be hard cause I've been away from home now for over two months. Anything to be safe and home again with family. God Bless
  4. Hello everyone I'm still in Seattle and I am among the lucky who are deemed part of the essential crew. We are fortunate enough to be able to continue our work on the ship and today we reached a glorious milestone which will most probably mean my companies small crew of five will be able to go home back to South Carolina by April 30th. Since I am coming home from what my state has called a "hot spot", I will have to be quarantined in my own home for 14 days once I arrive. I am planning an exit strategy and I am fortunate to have someone place a few groceries in my home before I arrive. All is well with me and my crew and all my family and friends back home. My Aunt Jolene called me recently and she informed me that she was calling everyone she knew to check and make sure they were alright right now. I think it's a good idea and thought I would check in here with everyone in the hope that everyone is doing as best as they can right now and staying safe. You all have meant so much to me when I could only see pain after the loss of my dear wife Rene'e. I still love and miss her immensely. I am doing my very best to do as she wished. I am still trying to pick up the peaces. I love you Rene'e, always and forever. God Bless πŸ™‚
  5. Mitch, Very good to hear from you again. You have been in my thoughts often. You were one of the very first to offer some direction and sympathy when I was going through the unthinkable. Thank You Sir
  6. Thank you all. I have to laugh cause I have spent November, December, February, looks like all of March as well before all is said and done, right here in the great city of Seattle. The weather in the South during the summer is brutal. Last year in May we had a whole week where the temperature was in excess of 100 degrees. Then, if you throw in the humidity and the insects I sometimes wonder how I've managed living there all these years. Since I've been in Seattle I practically burn up like a lobster in a pot of boiling water if I am in an area of the ship where it's above 52 degrees. When I get back to South Carolina I think I'll probably die from the heat! I really have become acclimated to the weather here. I see others on the ship that are my co-workers all bundled up in layers and I'm running around in just a skinny T-shirt. Gwenivere, I understand when you said "Don’t want to risk losing anyone and not have them know how important they are to me" cause that is something that I am struggling with right now. I have decided that I want to take a chance and that means that I am also excepting all the risk that are inherent when you open yourself up once again. It is a very difficult thing to do and I can only move forward taking one baby step at a time. But, I am moving forward and have managed to do some things I never thought I'd be capable of. Harder things await me, this I know. Dee, If you actually heard me speak you could tell instantly just how bad my Southern drawl really is. I even surprise myself when I here my own voice played back on a recording!😁 It's pretty bad, hahaa! Best wishes to all and good to hear from everyone again!
  7. Hello all those that know, I've been missing for awhile but I'm still staying strong and fighting for what I can see is still good in this world. Gwenivere is a true inspiration for me and Ipraishim cause I am not dealing with all the health issues that have been a part of y'alls life. Forgive me if my southern slang shows through. But, as so many of us have said, I am a fighter, and I will rage against the dying of the light. I am in Seattle once again and am enjoying all the many facets of this most interesting place. Trying to learn to live again is so very difficult cause you have to hide the private hell your going through just to make connections again. But, if that's what I have to do then that's what I will do, Life is short. I had better make the best of what time I have left with no regrets. Do what you want and to heck with the rest. It's hard, but we all have love inside us. If we have to keep it to ourselves to survive, then so be it. Learning to live again is so very hard, but it's the only way. God bless
  8. Absolutely beautiful. Love the markings and the ears. Funny, I bought an expensive indoor training crate and never had enough heart to put Strider in it. Ended up giving it to a lady at the dog park that was fostering five puppies. He had the run of the entire house when he was a puppy. Puppy pads everywhere for months. I remember coming home and the in-table lamp was lying on the living room floor carpet. I think he pulled it off the in-table accidentally by the chord and it must of scared him pretty bad because now he doesn't like anything moving that's not supposed to move. He has never bothered anything in the house since. Sometimes I wished I never let him sleep in the bed though, he is definitely a bed hog.
  9. KayC- Yes keep an eye on what will be down the road is the best advice I could get when I had Strider as a pup. He tried me to my near breaking point. I have to work and he was raised an indoor puppy at six months not yet house broken. It's difficult to house train when you are not there. They naturally prefer to go outside but when they are young you have to take them out at the very first sign if you get a warning at all. So just to tell you how Strider was, he was the type to do a very good job of not going inside only to wait until I walked in from work and then he would look at me and go right then. He literally just about drove me to my wits end and just as I was about to give up, suddenly he just got it. Its funny because i like to watch out for when they actually lift their leg when they go. One day they just decide to lift there leg and then its on from there. I have heard that that is the day they become a man. Silly isn't it. Strider used to squat as a pup and then one day, magically, the leg came up and he was a man.😊 Once the terrible two's were over it was a whole new story. Everything was different and he had finally became the amazingly good dog he is today. Yes, I admire you for taking on a new puppy. Way to go. Very challenging and always interesting to say the least.
  10. Thanks for the fond farewell from the PNW. Seattle is an amazing place and the people are nice. Ironic that I would have to travel all the way back to the deep South to see my first frost. Strider and Arwen were overjoyed to see me after 47 days! It did my heart a great deal of good to see them play together again. KayC reminded me of the time when Strider was little and it seems that everything went in his mouth. When I saw him pick something up off the floor in his mouth that he was not supposed to have I would hurriedly put my finger in his mouth and scoop it out and hopefully take it from him before he had a chance to swallow. Once, I got an electric mixer for mixing cake batter. I took it out of the box and the chord was tied together with a plastic tie. When I cut the plastic tie with the scissors it fell on the floor and before I could pick it up, Strider grabbed it in his mouth and looked straight at me and swallowed. I panicked because I knew that swallowing the plastic tie could hurt him. Fortunately, he spit it back up and I was so relieved. They are just like little children and they can get themselves in trouble very quickly. I found out when I went in for work to turn in my expense reports, that I will be returning to Seattle to help out the second field service team aboard the ship again in February, and I will be there for a whole month. This time it will be Seattle in the winter. No idea what that could be like. Can't imagine being there with snow or ice. Lots of big hills with steep roads.
  11. My time in Seattle has come to an end. Flying back home to South Carolina tomorrow. Can't wait to see my two fur babies Strider boy and little girl Arwen. That reminds me, congratulations KayC on your new addition to your fur baby family! 😊
  12. All I wanted was to have a family of my own. Fifty two years of living alone only to finally fall in love and plan a marriage, get married with all my family and friends present, and have it all taken away right before we were to have our very first Christmas together. I spent last Christmas in an empty house alone, starring at the half decorated tree my wife and I had started working on together, and crying each and every day since. I will never know another happy Christmas. it would have been better off for me if my life had ended on the day she passed away.
  13. Married Oct. 6th, 2018....bringing her home for the last time on Dec. 10th, 2018
  14. I only had two months with my dear wife Rene'e- You all are so very lucky. try to imagine, ….
  15. Today is the 8th of December- I remember the day I brought my wife home. Dec. 10th, I got a call from the funeral home saying I could go pick up her ashes. I had been awaiting the call, but it was my chance to bring my baby home. Nothing in this world has ever been harder than that day. I think about that day and all the days that have come since. I feel everyone here and sometimes I know that there just are no words..... Johnny
  16. We were married on Rene'e's father's Birthday Oct. 6th, we chose the date together, and I picked up her ashes from the funeral home on the anniversary day of her father's passing away Dec. 10th. So many difficult first anniversaries to get through. Thinking a lot about what I was going through only one year ago, hard to believe.
  17. Amberley- My wife was cremated and I had to make a space for her too. I think it is very important to have a space for the things which help to bring back memories of how happy she was when we were still together. The first thing we did after we married was buy some new furniture to redo the bedroom like she wanted. We picked up the nightstands at the furniture store and the large dresser drawer she wanted was to be delivered at a later date. So, she was temporarily living out cardboard boxes where she had her clothes stored. Every day she would tell me how much she wished they would go ahead and deliver the large dresser drawer so she could take her clothes she had stored in boxes and put them away in her new dresser drawer. Unfortunately, she passed away before her dresser drawer was delivered three weeks later. When the dresser drawer finally arrived, I was able to fulfill one small wish by taking her clothes out of the boxes and putting them away, neatly and folded, into her nice new dresser drawer. That dresser drawer is the space I made just for her things. I placed her ashes which were in the urn I picked out for her on top of her dresser along with a lot of pictures of us together and I touch her urn gently every day and tell her I love her. I needed a place where I could still talk to her. I needed to be still able to see her things each day so I could always remember how much we loved each other. All of her things are precious to me. Especially the things I know she loved.
  18. Yes Dee, it was a beautiful clear day here in Seattle. Saw the Christmas tree on top of the Space Needle. Looked at I and Rene'e pictures when I could on my phone while I was working on the Ship. Working helped my get through the day and I think she would have been proud that I was able to be productive, It is hard, like Kieron said, it feels like a chapter of my life has come full round, she is gone and I still remember the day. Almost like grieving over my wife's loss and grieving over the past year and how much it has changed without her by my side. I have had good thoughts today as well; remembering the good times long enough to smile. Thank you for the warm peaceful thoughts and reminding me of the love we shared, Johnny
  19. Thank you Gwenivere, KayC, Kieron, and Gin, I knew today was going to be tough, being the anniversary, but fortunately I had to work today so I felt that she would have been proud that I was able to be productive. I had to look at the pictures I had today many times just to remember that she loved me and I had her in my life. I want it to matter because it does. She loved me. I was loved by someone of their own free will. If she had it her way, she wanted to spend as much time by my side. We did everything together. All I wanted was to be with my wife every day. Funny, I did not get to see her two days before the wedding because she had her matron of honor and best friend in the world come into town and they both agreed to stay at her Mom's for the two days prior to the wedding. She called me one the phone the first night she was away at her Mom's and told me that she didn't think she was going to make it, I laughed and I said we would only be away from each other for two nights and then we would be married forever. She just said "I don't care, I miss you now". She was like that. 😊 I have to tell you that reading Amberley's and So Very Sad's recent losses yesterday I was thrown head long into remembering the pain of loss I felt in the first few months. It was all I could do to remember to take care of myself, sleep, eat, and try to pretend to function during those early days. Their were a lot of things I used to love to do and felt I had a purpose. I had a future imagined, and in the future I imagined, I knew there would be tough times, but we would face the tough times together, and as long as we had each other, everything would be alright. I was so lucky, and then she was gone. I was totally lost. Just to deal with the pain took all my strength and I had to force myself to do the things I knew I needed to. I still have a long way to go, but then, I saw no way I was going to be ok. All I could see was a life of work, only to come home alone, for the rest of my life. No one wants a life like that, but what I realize now is that I really do not know how the rest of my life will be. I have to try, that is what she wanted, because she loved me. β™₯️
  20. Hello Amberley, I also lost the love of my life in the month of Nov. 30th 2018. We married on Oct. 6th 2018 and she was gone less than two months later, right before the Christmas holiday. I tried to reach out to the family I had around me at first as often I could because I was in such unbearable pain from her sudden unexpected passing away. In fact, I believe I was just going through the motions, doing what I could to keep everything going. After a little more time, at just about after three months, I would sometimes feel as if the walls were closing in on me and I just had to pick up the phone just to hear another human voice. I just could not imagine coming home anymore without her there waiting for me. Try as I might, I could not imagine a future life for myself, all I could do was try to make it through another day. It was difficult to concentrate as my thoughts kept going back to that terrible day I lost her, I knew I had to do something, something to reach out to try to understand this unimaginable feeling of loss and hopelessness. I came here because I did not know what else to do. Here, everyone understands. Almost each day I would write about my wife, something that I remembered. It really helped to be able to talk about her. Remember the happy times and know what she would want for you now. Tomorrow is the first anniversary of my wife Rene'e passing away. I made it through all the other difficult first anniversaries that a widowed husband has to go through. Those days are very tough but I try to do something in my wife's honor, like going to church on her birthday, taking the dogs for a day at the park, or just find a way to get outside and have some sunshine on my face. And when it hurts, I let it hurt because that is how much I loved her and still love her. It helps for me to tell others here, who have experienced such a loss, how truly wonderful she was.
  21. OMG, you mean the outside part was open before without the glass! Unbelievable, I would have never thought it.
  22. This will be a Thanksgiving dinner I will always remember. Imagine eight men in a hotel kitchen all at once trying to put together a turkey dinner with all the trimmings at the last minute. Fortunately, everything worked out nicely and we all had our picture taken together with all the food spread out in front of us. At times it seemed a little touch and go without a women there to set us straight, but, in the end we pulled it off. Some hotel guests passerby's even wished our little unlikely group a happy Thanksgiving. As I was carrying what was left of the smoked turkey in a great big foil pan out of my suite, a women passed me by at my door and when she happened to notice what I was carrying, I just couldn't resist saying "It's tough cooking such a big turkey in a little tiny microwave", leaving her with a puzzled look on her face to go figure. 😁
  23. Now that would be something to see. Maybe one day if I am lucky. Heights and me are like "Donkey Kong", I just can't seem to make it past the third level. Thank you Karen - 😊
  24. Anytime! Children were crawling all around me, some of them even lying down on it face first, and here I am a grown man and I was scared to step out on to it. Hilarious πŸ˜‚
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