I can’t thank you all enough for the beautiful condolences you’ve sent regarding the death of my father. It has been a terribly difficult time and with the addition of sending my youngest son to college, it seemed like the world was unraveling.
Months ago, when things seemed perfectly normal, Bob and I planned a trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. After going back and forth, “should we?” “shouldn’t we?” we decided to go ahead and take off on our trip.

So . . . I’m writing to you now from lovely Paris! We spent several days in London, then took the train over to France. The weather has been beautiful – downright cold in London, but we left a 90° heatwave back home, so cooler weather was great. Paris is like a chilly autumn day as we stroll around and do all the tourist things.

More details will come later, but I’ll be taking some time off from the regular newspaper column, and slowing the blog down a bit. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see some of the highlights of our trip so far. I’m trying to post there daily. To keep up with new posts on the blog and not miss anything, you can always sign up on the top right sidebar with your email to get notifications.

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement and prayers. I love knowing that many of you knew my Dad or have had a similar life experience and can offer comfort. This trip is the perfect thing I needed to refocus and stop sitting at home moping around. Our anniversary came at just the right time!

Life is good and should be celebrated. We cry, we laugh, we clink glasses together and kiss. Another day is here and life goes on.
