by Betsy Dane | Apr 7, 2025 | Current Affairs, This and That
We are living in troubled and divisive times. And we are all, for the most part, afraid that things will get much worse before they get better. Anyone who knows me knows that I knew him way before he was #47 and #45. The first time I met him, he came to visit the...
by Betsy Dane | Dec 5, 2024 | Current Affairs, Rambling, This and That
It has been 3 1/2 years since my last post, but after multiple moves and other events, hopefully I am settled down enough to once again bring “pen to paper”. It is mind-boggling that this will be our 7th Christmas without my Tom, but of course my family...
by Betsy Dane | Jul 28, 2021 | Grief, Moving On in Life, Rambling, This and That
In the movie “The Bucket List,” Jack Nicholson’s character, Edward Cole, uses the phrase “like smoke through a keyhole” to describe how quickly a life passes. This is not meant to be a morbid concept, but rather a reminder that we should...
by Betsy Dane | Mar 17, 2021 | Grief, Moving On in Life, This and That
It has been a long time coming, but I have finally put pen to “paper” once again as I have reflected on the past months. And, as I face the third anniversary of losing my Tom (how is that even possible?), I am forced once again to consider how grief will...
by Betsy Dane | Oct 28, 2020 | Current Affairs, This and That
Two years ago yesterday, an armed gunman, a 46-year old homegrown terrorist from the Pittsburgh suburbs, burst into the morning Sabbath services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Armed with a Colt AR-15 and three...
by Betsy Dane | Sep 11, 2020 | Change, Current Affairs, This and That
I can’t believe that today marks nineteen years that my Tom and I were standing in the driveway of our new house in Sarasota – we had moved there from New York only eight or so days prior. We had no TV, our little girls had just started elementary school. We...
by Betsy Dane | Aug 5, 2020 | Grief, Moving On in Life, Rambling, This and That
OK, so maybe legally that is what I am…and it is the box I have to check on forms at the doctor’s office or on a credit application for “marital status”. But I really HATE the word. Interestingly enough, I decided to see why I maintained such...
by Betsy Dane | Jul 9, 2020 | Current Affairs, Rambling, This and That
In John Carpenter’s 1984 sci-fi film Starman, the alien, played by Jeff Bridges says to the scientist, Mark Shermin (played by Charles Martin Smith): “You are a strange species. … You are at your very best when...
by Betsy Dane | Jun 9, 2020 | Rambling, This and That
You had better sit down….this is a long one! I have now been pretty much under “house arrest” for nearly three months. With the exception of the doctor’s office and one quick (scheduled) visit to the bank, I have not seen the inside of any...
by Betsy Dane | Mar 7, 2020 | This and That
I don’t mean being a witness in the evangelical, testimonial sense,or in the legal way…but rather in your life as a person. One of my favorite quotes of all time (and one of Tom’s too) was in the movie Shall we Dance with Susan Sarandon, Richard Gere...