about me
This blog began as a place to share the inspiration that I felt while holding a paint brush. I loved posting about my artistic endeavors and sharing tips and tricks. I was so happy as an art-pursuer, maintaining a professional career in technology, and as a newlywed. This was a time when I thought that my life had at long last, come together. It WAS true. Today, at age 78, my life is in its final chapters and I feel the urge to let you in, to write on.
Four years ago I became a widow after being my husband’s sole caregiver as he declined with dementia. Writing here and in my daily journal has sustained me. While he was alive I had become accustomed to writing on this blog about what we were going through and that practice helped me to accept the reality of what it is really like losing the person you love most in the whole world.
No one knows what I had to overcome to let him in, to be in a loving and kind relationship based on trust. I have never written about my past life, adventure highs and lows, and my invisible-style childhood. I never wanted you to know. I have experienced so much happiness and joy that I don’t want to hold secrets. I know what it means to ‘let it go.’
Before my husband died, I made a decision that my life was not going to be swept away and buried with him. I had fought so hard to get to this place, to feel love, that I must go on while carrying grief. It is a different life now, chapters to unfold, as I redefine and explore, at this stage of life, what it means to thrive.
Hi Ruth,
Thank you for posting the Falls Church Arts call for art for the Near and Far exhibit. We saw it on the NVPS site. All three of my entries and two of Bob’s were accepted.
it will be a beautiful gallery exhibit because your work will be on display.
The gallery exhibit will be beautiful because your work will be on display! I am looking forward to seeing it.
Hi Ruth,
I saw your recent post about your backyard design on our local Facebook group. Is there still a sketch group at GSG? I’m retired now and wanting a laid back social art experience instead of a formal class. – This write-up about you pulls at my heart. I haven’t known the strength and sacrifice to be a spouse’s caregiver. I hope you have kept to your resolutions to blossom.