Being a Widow – Part 10

My name is Karen, and I am a widow.

I did a thing.

Yesterday was Father’s Day — and it also would have been my parents’ 85^th wedding anniversary.  Instead of spending it in the ways I once knew, I found myself sitting with a group of new friends, learning to play Mahjong.

Never in my life did I imagine observing these days like this. Growing up, family was the center of everything. Father’s Day meant gathering, remembering, and often visiting the cemetery. As a child, I walked those rows of headstones with my parents, listening to stories about grandparents, great‑aunts, uncles — each stop a history lesson, each name a thread in our family tapestry. As the years passed and more loved ones were laid to rest, those visits grew longer, heavier, and more sacred.

June was always a month of celebration and remembrance: Father’s Day, my parents’ anniversary, and my dad’s birthday all woven together.

But life shifted. I moved from city to city, and the traditions of my childhood softened into a single yearly pilgrimage to Machpelah Cemetery in Detroit, where Mom and Dad now rest together for eternity.

So yesterday, sitting among new friends, I felt a pang — that tug of guilt that I wasn’t honoring the day in the way I had grown accustomed to. But then something shifted. I realized I was honoring it — just differently. I was celebrating life. I was living fully. And that is the mission I’ve been working toward since Rich passed.

That pang lifted, and in its place came a quiet contentment.

I’m beginning to understand my own needs. I’m learning that the way I live each day is a tribute — to Richard, to my brother, to my parents, and to every soul who shaped me before leaving this earth. We don’t get to choose every twist in our story, but we do get to choose how we walk the path. Wishing alone won’t build a life, and even hard work doesn’t guarantee the exact shape of our dreams — but without wishing and working, we have no chance at all.

I may never be wealthy in dollars, but I can be wealthy in friendship. I can be wealthy in sunlight, even on cloudy days. I can be wealthy in kindness, in connection, in lifting others up.

I did a thing yesterday. I’ll do another thing today. And tomorrow. Each one a small stitch in the legacy I’m creating.

Please join me on my journey…

#YesICan Coaching with Karen
Email: Kh.yesican1@gmail.com