Gulliver Traveled

To Widow Group
(pictured is 8 out of 10 members. Julie is behind the camera, and Monique moved back to Belgium this past summer)

Loweded Wookie had a whole bunch of rules on his blog about what one needs to do if they have Gulliver for a visit. I'll summarize the most important part here:

With regards the photos. While scenery is pretty cool and thereÂ’s some amazing places on earth, I know because I live in one of those places, what makes a place so cool is the people. I want to see the people where you live, not just your families but people in the city or surrounding areas. Show me parties with your friends, show me drunken bums holding Gulliver just show me the people that make where you live special and such a great place to live. That is the purpose of this experiment anyway, to show that we humans are just like everyone else despite borders,colorss, creeds, and religions. BTW, you donÂ’t need to be in the photo if you donÂ’t want to but if you do that would be awesome.

Part of what makes where I live so great, and part of the reason it would be so difficult for me to leave, is widow group. I know I've posted about them before, but they are worth many, many blog entries. These women all lost their husbands within the same year that I lost Joe. Most of us were strangers when we met in October of 2004. We all remember those first support group meetings. We were so sad, and it was so heartbreaking to hear the stories of how we all lost our spouses.

Our leader, Leah, told us that soon we would be looking forward to meetings, and we would even find ourselves laughing at the meetings. None of us believed her. We felt so hollow, laughter seemed like a distant memory.

But with time, and with the support of each other, we did start laughing again. I posted a year ago that every widow group there are tears, and every widow group there is laughter. That was true, even tonight.

There are tears for what we lost, for what our husbands, and children, and children never born lost. There are tears for the memories of illnesses, and saying goodbyes, and for never getting the chance to say goodbye. There are tears for the loneliness, and the aches in our hearts that will never ever leave.

But there is laughter too. Lots and lots of laughter. What do we laugh about? Life. Because even though we all lost a part of ourselves when our husbands died, we are still alive. And with the support of widow group, we are all living.

In my opinion Gulliver traveled to the best party out there. I feel so lucky to be able to join my widow group friends every Monday night.

As to where Gulliver will travel to next, it's been a really hard decision for me. I love all of my blog readers, and you are all worthy of a visit from this cheerful little guy.

I think after bringing him to widow group, it's only fitting to pass him on to another widow. So Pentha send me your address through a pm on the widow board. Gulliver is coming your way.

-b