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One Step At A Time 🤗

One Step At A Time 🤗

This is from October. They are not cooperating on

this trip, well it’s really only one of them lol. Front is Zeke aka Mr. Uncooperative, to left in back is Ned and on the right is Noah 💜💜💜

One Step At A Time 🤗

@SummerOnTheWay1 I’m glad you got that sorted out. Insurance stuff is a mess. I never believe any letter they send me. The more informed one is, the better. So stressful tho

I pray that everyone in Florida will be safe from the storm.  

Losing a spouse is tough. I lost the love of my love after 53 years of marriage.

But we had many good years. I am SO thankful that we took SS early (my wife's family did not have longevity. )We were able to travel - road trips, cruises and a couple of trips to Europe. As we aged Jan became less able to travel. Was in a wheel chair whenever we left the home (in the last 7 years). We visited our children many many times over the years either tied to a road trip or flying. Jan was in failing health after her first stroke in 2017 but could continue to be functional. Over the years she had many challenges  including a kidney transplant, hip replacement, two strokes, colon cancer, and two broken shoulders from falls. But Jan made the most of it - she was a trooper!!!!!  I can not emphasize this enough !!!! Get your "doing" in early as you never know what the future holds. We were lucky to have about 10 great retirement years with lots of blessings over that time.

It does seems that the emptiness of the home and the missing of your loved one never seem to go completely away. I am blessed to have two children close with a third in Chicago. And they are attentive and call often.

One other bit of advice - we purchased long term care insurance that we used for probably 4 years. This allowed us to have caregivers in the home. The cost for the care would have been prohibitive without it (About $6,500 a month)

Lastly I am now without my wife for two years. I have had to push myself to get out of the home. Some of the things that I have done that may help you...

I bike two hours a day -one hour of that with friends-and will often talk to my son for a good part of the other hour. 

I take a circuit training class MWF each week.

I volunteer at the church Thursday mornings - do clean up and have coffee with the other volunteers.

 I have been blessed to have two couples that have been very supportive. I will spend an evening at a minimum once and sometimes 2X a week with them.

Lastly, I now finally have begun to  invite people to my home and this is a challenge for me.

Probably the most difficult thing for me is to go to functions by myself. Most everyone else that attends is with their spouse.

All for now hope this helps in some small way.

One Step At A Time 🤗

One Step At A Time 🤗

One Step At A Time 🤗