100 and counting

I joined blip at the suggestion a friend one hundred days ago…..I only became aware of this when she messaged me early this morning…..
And at her suggestion I dedicate this blip to my late wife Siobhán……A woman who, as she told me on her death bed, loved me every day of our lives from the day we met…. I really didn’t need to be told that… She proved it every single day in caring for me, counselling me out of depression, caring for our children in a way that has brought them up to be caring, loving adults. After almost 30 years of loving she fixed me and I am now content in who I am…. No mean feat…. But she is dead…. Being a crisis counsellor dealing with the horrors of children being burned and tortured by having their fingers crushed in the jamb of a door, dealing with generations of women who though the odd beating was ok and dealing with the psychologically bullied took its toll and I believe she paid the ultimate price. I, amongst others, am her legacy and have a lot to live up to, both now and into the future….
My subscribers are very few in number but they are special. I thank them for making my journey so enjoyable…… I love the stories of snapper, somersetsnaps and fluffikens……….
Today is not a good day for my 100th blip…. I can only think of tomorrow…… I went to the beach and wrote her a message in the sand. A message quickly washed away by a rising tide… But there long enough for her to see… and it was a simple message….. Thank you for the memories…
The remembrance hour on Remembrance Day and my wedding are both at 11am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month….. I believe we all have good reason to remember those many who gave up their lives in the cause they believed in... I have cause to also to remember my wedding day....obviously.
I quote, as I often do, Laurence Binyon’s unequaled poem…
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Siobhán was forty nine when she died…. She was too young……
My mother was buried on my late wife’s month mind. She had said to me “The men in our family don’t cry”…… I spoke at her funeral and told her through the eulogy she may have been a wonderful mother but she was wrong about the crying. I cried for my wife. I cried for my mother….not because it was wrong….more that I loved them and had no shame in showing it…… And eight years her work continues to make me stronger…
I love that I still love her….. without shame
I love that I can still love again….. with her blessing
Just saying…………..without shame