morrowlife

Today was my 36th wedding anniversary. There have been lots of important days in the nearly eleven months since Shannon’s death. Many of them go by without much difficulty for me. Maybe there’s a brief pang or a sad thought. Sometimes there’s a mental or even vocal monologue with Shannon. Other times there’s a happy thought or memory.

But our first wedding anniversary without her was a fairly difficult one. When I face a hard day, I often find it helpful to sit down and write. That’s what I did at about 12:30 this morning. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook:

Today’s the 36th anniversary of my marriage to Shannon Morrow and I’m feeling the sting of her loss a bit more than on most days. [A] wonderful little article on motherhood posted earlier by my niece Jessica Morrow really touched my heart.

Jessica started the adventure of parenthood relatively recently. I can tell by her Facebook posts that she’s crazy about her little boy and I can see that she has become a devoted, wonderful mom.

How I love and miss my mother and, today even more than usual, how I love and miss the mother of my children. It seemed like she always knew just exactly what to say and do to help our kids feel loved and happy and to keep them moving in the direction they needed to go. She was their friend and mentor and, for Andrew Morrow and Mark Morrow, their schoolteacher from the very beginning right through their graduation from high school. She never stopped teaching, she never stopped encouraging, and she never stopped loving each child. Her influence on them is immense, as I know it will remain through the rest of their lives. We talk about her frequently, we think about her constantly, and the aching in our hearts goes on and on.

I am so grateful for the wonderful life Shannon gave me, for the wonderful children she gave me, and for the endless, tireless labor of love she freely gave as my wife and our children’s mother through her entire adult life. She was devoted to each of us and put her whole heart into making us happy. I know she was proud of the kids and would remain so today. I am who I am today because my mother gave me a great start and then my wife stood by my side and strengthened me and taught me how to love.

I promised Shannon I would move forward happily, and that’s what I’m doing. I am deeply grateful to have the companionship of a wonderful woman, Joanne Marie Richards Parsons, as a big part of that happy life. We’re both recovering from the loss of our spouses this year. Our relationship is fun and exciting, but we’re also there to comfort and understand each other as we go through the difficult, seemingly endless grieving process. Thank you, Joanne, for making it so easy to love you and for accepting me as I am. And thank you, Shannon, for loving the children and me deeply enough to give us the strength to go on without you. Happy anniversary.

Life’s good and it’s getting better. I can feel my heart get stronger and happier all the time. So the bit of grief I felt today wasn’t a setback. It was just a natural, normal part of my healing.

I love my life.

Had a chance to think today. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook:

This has not been the easiest year of my life, with the loss in February of Shannon Morrow, my wonderful wife of 35 years, and then my dear mother’s death in September. I think my heart has broken anew every single day.

And yet out of the ashes of my life has arisen a new, happy, wonderful present and future. Joanne Marie Richards Parsons came into my life in the spring. It started with a serious interest, quickly turned into love, and just recently blossomed into our engagement. Joanne’s love has given me immense happiness and strength. Her circle of friends has embraced me. Her wonderful children have been kind and welcoming to me. My life is filled with love and happiness.

My children have reached out to me and loved and cared for me, even as they dealt with their own loss and grief. My relationships with them have grown stronger and closer. Each one is a strong, happy, independent adult and I couldn’t be a prouder father.

So along with personal tragedies, 2014 has brought me peace and happiness and given me optimism for the future. My past was wonderful, my present is wonderful, and my future promises to continue to be happy and full of wonder. Life is good.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Nothing to add. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Mark at the other end of the Abby’s Million Dollar Dream banner. We had a great time! The only problems were the cold, wind, and rain. But the event was great and the cause was worthwhile. Please donate, Loyal Readers! Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken during the 2014 Henderson Heritage Day parade, and part of my famous Event, Las Vegas, Medical, and Shannon series.

Nice day today. Joanne and I went to a very fancy Italian restaurant called Gaetano’s Ristorante. The food was excellent and the service was superb. The prices were a bit high, but we had a groupon! So we have that going for us, which is nice. It was a lovely evening out with a lovely lady. She had on a very pretty black and white sweater and looked like a million bucks. I had the prettiest date in the room.

Didn’t get too much work done today, but I did catch up on some communications. Still no registrations for the PhotoDoc seminar in October. I don’t think the invitations have gone out yet. At least I hope not – it would be kind of discouraging to invite 50 people and get no responses.

Carmen, our housekeeper, will be here tomorrow, so I think I’ll end here and go to bed. She gets here at 8:00 and I need to be up and ready to go before then. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: bad-driver dog!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the front of the City of Hope on February 1 of this year. They decorated the campus for Chinese New Year. I loved the decorations. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the City of Hope, and part of my famous Architecture, Event, Garden, Medical, Shannon, and Statue series.

Lots of famous series there. Today’s picture is also important to me because I took it on Shannon’s last full day of life. The City of Hope is still a sacred place to me and I’ll always remember it as the place where we had hope for Shannon’s recovery and life and where I rediscovered the sweetness of our love. That it had to be the place where her life ended doesn’t take away any of the meaning for me.

No posts on Thursday or Friday. Sorry about that, Loyal Readers. Stay loyal! I’ll try to do better. I might even succeed! But don’t count on it.

Pretty good weekend. I went out for lunch with Joanne a couple times and she invited me to a birthday party for one of her friends on Friday evening. We had a wonderful time. The honoree works for the company that runs the restaurant where the party was held, and they really did an amazing job. There was a never-ending stream of delicious appetizers. I met a few of Joanne’s friends and really like them all. Strangely, they seem to like me too. Kind of suspicious, if you ask me. Anyway, I’ve really liked everyone she has introduced me to.

Happy birthday to Nan McCulloch, my wonderful mother-in-law! I truly appreciate Nan for the kind person she is and for her loving care of Don all these years. I know she’s brought great happiness to his life and I trust it’s been a fulfilling life for her too.

Saturday evening, Mark and I went with some friends to the Jazz in the Park concert at the Clark County outdoor amphitheater. It was great! The evening was beautiful, the temperature was just right, and the music was very enjoyable. There was a bit of wind, but it never got bad enough to bother us. A few musicians had a bit of trouble keeping their sheet music on the stands, but that was their problem. Joanne and I are going to the one on the 24th of this month as well.

Shortly after we got home from the concert, the wind got very strong indeed. I thought we were in Kansas for a minute there and was starting to wonder which wicked witch my house was going to land on. I’m glad it didn’t get bad until after we got home.

Sunday, I went with Joanne to visit her late husband’s grave. He’s buried in a nearby veteran’s cemetery, and they recently notified her that his gravestone has been put in place. She wanted to see it but didn’t want to go alone. After our visit, we walked through the adjacent park and talked about her late husband Jerry and her extended family, and then we talked about Shannon and our extended family. We both needed to get some tears out. It was a good talk.

And that pretty much brings us up to today. The most notable thing I did today was to break the Business Casual Software website. I was trying to update WordPress to the most recent version and something went wrong. The installation got halfway done and broke the website. I pondered my options and decided to get on the GoDaddy website and see if I could reinstall the update through their website. It worked brilliantly and I’m back in business after just a short outage.

Spent 45 minutes or so in the jacuzzi this evening. It’s so relaxing I can hardly keep my eyes open anymore. So I’ll quit here!

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this combination exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity and food violence news: genius chair-moving, food-stealing beagle!

Here’s Shannon on the beach at Half-Moon Bay back in March of 2011. That was a great weekend with good friends. The weather was a bit chilly for beachgoing, but it was just perfect for being together. Great Art courtesy of my old Olympus digital camera and part of my famous Shannon and Vacation series.

And I think this is the where my daily pictures of Shannon end. I have many more that I will continue to share, but I think it’s time to add some Great Art from the present too. Life is becoming easier and easier to live in the present. That’s how it should be, I think. I still want my old life back so, so badly. But it’s not there anymore. And my new life is a happy one too.

Pretty good day today. I got a bit of progress made on my iOS program. I have all the warnings eliminated except for the one telling me to update my distribution certificate soon. I’ll take care of that shortly. Tomorrow, the changes start being applied.

Mark and I went to Roberto’s for dinner today. I meant to make something, but it got late again before I did anything. I have some really good steaks to barbecue. Just need to take the time. Maybe tomorrow.

After dinner, we went over to the Sunset Station bowling alley to meet Joanne’s children and grandson. They were there for her grandson Riley’s sixth birthday. Several of them are really good bowlers. Note to self: think twice before accepting an invitation to go bowling with those guys. But the important thing was meeting her family. They’re all delightful, fun, happy, quirky young people. Just like their mom. It was a pleasant visit and Joanne reports they like me too.

Let’s see, what else happened today? I got an email from my parents-in-law. I had been thinking about them the other day and it struck me how devastated I would be if one of my children were to die – possibly even more devastated than I have been since my wife died. So I sent a note expressing condolences for the effect Shannon’s loss has had on them and thanking them – especially Shannon’s dad – for the great foundation in life they gave her and for their ongoing love. I also mentioned once again how crucial her dad’s example has been to me in my bereavement. Today they responded with a very kind note expressing their love for Shannon and for me. It was touching. I took a moment to cry, which is something that has been happening less and less lately but is still there just below the surface.

And that’s it for today. My Loyal Readers will be surprised to hear that it’s very late and I need to get to bed. I’ll leave them with this shocking food violence news: banana break-in!

See you tomorrow.