Can it be 10 weeks already? Yes today marks that amount of earthly days since my sweet man made his way to his heavenly home with God's help. It has been quite the road to walk on and no one can prepare you really, although many try, only God can take your hand and walk it with you.
Many ask or say the holiday season has to be difficult, right? I'm sure many of my friends and relatives are wondering how I'm doing with them. Well, I wrote last just before Thanksgiving at which time I wondered myself how that would go for me. It was always such a special day for Tom and I. Actually a whole special weekend as we always seem to have get togethers the whole time. For instance this year we did our usual girl coffee time at Starbucks on Friday morning and another family dinner Friday night followed by a hay ride with a bon fire and dinner in the creek bed on Rochelle's ranch on Saturday evening. The weekend ended with church and Sunday afternoon lunch together at Randall's house. Tricia and Steve came up and spent some extra time overnight with me so I was surrounded with family and activities all week. The answer to my above question of, is holidays hard for you, I have to say no just because there is so much joy and sharing time together. Every day though, does have some tears just because the loss is always there so holiday or no I still have to work through the grief.
Now it's getting ready for the Christmas season and I praise God for helping me enjoy many things that remind me of what an amazing God we have that He came to this world to give us hope and salvation! I have enjoyed decorating and already had a Christmas party at my house with the Care Pregnancy Center volunteers and board and staff. The 18 of us had a wonderful time of food and fellowship as well as a time of sharing encouragement in the ministry. I was also able to attend a presentation of the Messiah and got shivers from the Hallelujah chorus and one of my favorite solos - I Know that my Redeemer Lives. The songs are all from the Bible so it blesses our hearts as we listen. On the next two nights I was able to attend wonderful Christmas programs my grandchildren were in. It doesn't get any better than that! I have a few more parties to come as our family has three birthdays to celebrate in December and our family Christmas celebration which we have on the 21st so everyone can do their own thing and be with in-laws on Christmas. There is also another Christmas program to attend and a friends party to enjoy.
As you can see I am not one to sit at home. I'm thankful God gives me the strength to face each day tears and all. I can get up in the morning and still love to jog a few mornings a week and I also sleep very well. I'm so thankful for these simple things as life is so different not having Tom around. It occurred to me today it is a little like when we moved into this house 23 years ago, I wondered why it felt so cold as it was very lovely. Then I realized we had no memories here and once we lived life here I soon forgot about my old home. I don't think I'll ever forget my life with Tom but I do realize it takes time to make new memories as my mind is often flooded with thoughts of what we did together.
One thing we did a lot of over the years was travel. Tom's business took us up north to Redding this time of year. I spent many years shopping at the malls up north in Chico, Anderson, and Redding while my honey was buying cattle. I learned to wrap gifts, make out Christmas cards, do my Bible Study lessons, and wherever while we were on the road. Many weeks we were gone from Thursday to Saturday. I always liked to tell Tom he was blessed for marrying a woman who was half gypsy as I always enjoyed going wherever he wanted to go. I could always figure out what to do while he worked. Our evenings were than spent finding good restaurants and early morning running paths or some hiking places. In Redding there is a beautiful path along the Sacramento River. We loved doing that on Saturday morning before we left for home. We had some favorite eating places all along the road home. I find myself thinking about all these things we did so often.
Our first dates were at Christmas time also. We ended up going out 5 times in 7 days because there were ball games and I was a cheerleader, programs to attend and church. After those 5 days I knew I was in love, but I wasn't quite sure about Tom. I happened to have gone out with another young man just before this time who wanted to ask me out again. I did not want to go and kept making excuses so he asked if he could pick me up from school and I gave in and said yes! BIG MISTAKE! Tom's friend saw me and reported the incident. I was able to turn down the other young man who I felt bad about hurting but I knew Tom was special. I was able to tell another of Tom's friends the truth of the situation so Tom would not throw in the towel on me. I heard he was VERY angry when he heard about the other boy. Yikes! God was good and let us get back together. Soon after this Tom's sweet friend that helped us repair our relationship warned me not to get too hooked on Tom as he loves them and leaves them quite often! WHAT! To late for that! Well believe it or not Tom after a few more weeks asked me if I wanted to meet his parents! Well now I thought I don't think he is going to leave me too soon as I did not think he had done that with anyone else. Not long after I met his parents - later I heard they were pretty nervous about me as I was rather young and I have to admit a little ditsy. It wasn't long after that he asked me to go steady (a thing we did in the 60's). That was big as I knew for sure he had not asked another girl to go steady. To him that was like engagement. :)
As you now know we made it through those dating times and went on to many happy years of marriage. We have been so blessed!
Let me leave you with two great verses that are underlined in my sweet husband's Bible so I know they were special to him:
Philippians 1:6 being confident of this that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
I'm pressing on my dear one.............
