Oh dear. It was right around this time last year when Joe was admitted to the hospital for the last time. I was out of town but nearby on...

Joe was what my friend Jan calls an “old soul”. All of his life, he had a wisdom and maturity beyond his years. Even when he was a child,...

I knew it would be hard. Recently I began going through Joe’s room. I am saving some things and having a quilt made from some of his...

Happy Birthday, sweet boy. (Sorry Joe, you’ll always be my sweet boy). You would have been 25 today. I am planning to hang out alone at a...

As you know, I really thought a lot of my son. There is so much I miss about him: his kindness and courtesy, his practical help, his...

Joe never had many close friends, but that was his choice. Sometimes throughout his life I would encourage him to get together with other...

For three and a half years I took Joe to doctors’ offices, labs, chemo infusion centers, rehab centers, and sometimes hospitals. Every...

My friend Jill Crawley, who is an artist, recently surprised me with a wonderful gift. It is a painting based on a photo of Joe that I...

Joe, like most of us, sometimes had trouble discerning God’s voice amidst all the noise and stress of life. Between work commitments,...

It’s always there, in the pit of my stomach. A dull ache that sometimes hides in the background of life, and sometimes clearly makes its...

Aphasia: an impairment of language, affecting speech and the ability to read or write. (aphasia. org) It was the weirdest thing. I went...

Regret is an insidious companion. It brings deep pain and unnecessary guilt. I am learning I can generally shut it down with facts. (And...

The rain is falling all around It falls on field and tree It rains on the umbrellas here And on the ships at sea. In all likelihood...

I can’t remember ever hearing Joe complain. About anything. It’s possible I’m forgetting, but I’m pretty sure he was just one of those...

When my children were very young I began praying almost daily that they would be friends with each other. I would tell them: “other...

One of the hardest things in my grief process is this: I wish I had been aware of the “last times”. Wish I had known at the time, this is...

I just finished reading A Grief Observed by C.S. (Jack) Lewis, the journal he kept just after his beloved wife Joy died. In the beginning...

For several years this tree was in Joe’s room, and it flourished there by a sunny window. Early in 2014, for some mysterious reason, he...

Joe loved food. I mean, he REALLY loved it. I think maybe food was his love language—the one Gary Chapman forgot to mention in his book....

Joe didn’t watch much TV, but he really liked the Jason Bourne movies, as do I. Once or twice a year we would work through all four of...