Date Night

There is a First Friday Art Walk in a town close to me.

Friday night is date night for the hubby and me, and you see,

it was on First Friday. So, one of my favorite things is forever going to be

the artist talk. Questions are answered after their talk. And there were bee

photos and bee art on display. And the title of the display is about their

Grief. Did the artist lose their bees? No, the bees belonged to their father,

who was lying there dying from a rare, deadly form of cancer.

It was sisters who came to talk about their work, one from London

and the other from Minnesota, where their dad lived. Death was sudden,

diagnosed, and then a short while later, gone. Taking photos of the lone

bees, separated, reminded her of what she was living through. Alone,

her sister lives in London and was not able to join her at the time.

Having the bees helped her. When she shared with her sister, it was prime

time to work on this project around grief. It helped both sisters to heal.

One felt guilty as she couldn’t be there, and one felt that she couldn’t deal

with it to be of much support to their father

or their mother.

~~

Two others spoke about their art, and one who lived out of state was unable to be there. Their feelings were expressed through their powerful work. Then they had a box for putting a piece of paper in with a list of your grief. At the end of their talk, I wrote a list of grief that looked like the following:

Grief — Big Belief — In Grief

So sad

1964-Dad

60s-Grandmother

70s-uncle and other

80s-Divorce

No recourse

85–99 2nd marriage

divorce —and grieving my age

2000–2025 sends

me to too many ends

2004 marriage and children

more grandchildren

more great-grandchildren

2009-Mother

2010-Sister

2011-granddaughter

2012–2013 Cancer

2014–2021 in-laws

Father-in-law

mother-in-law

hubby’s aunts

recovery friends

2021-pandemic-brother

COVID-19 friend's husband

Cancer friend and

more covid friends

Author's note: Even though it was an enjoyable evening for the most part, writing the list brought back much loss! I believe in grief work and have done most of the work I have needed to do. Tears, Laughter, Art, Memorials, Wiping of Tears, Cedar Ceremonies, Giveaways, Fundraising events, and more are all healing, and I participate in them all!

~~~~

First published by Write Under The Moon on medium.com