An old college friend lost her husband last winter after a short illness. I invited her to come and visit us in Florida and get a change of scenery. She lives in California so I was surprised when she accepted the invitation.
We had a pleasant time doing Florida things - taking the boat to the beach, eating dinner out and sitting on the lanai drinking wine. She needed to talk and I listened. It was often hard and scary since, in addition to watching her husband die, there were mistakes from the medical profession and lack of compassion from financial entities.
She called yesterday to organize another visit...this time in Maryland with old friends In discussing her previous visit, she said it was one of the most helpful experiences she had this year while coping wih grief. The reason, she said was that Florida was so different and new that she never looked around for Mike and wondered where he was since he had never been with us in Florida, So she could enjoy the new experiences without missing Mike. She had no expectation or feeling of loss that Mike wasn't there,
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