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...
by Betsy Dane | Feb 18, 2020 | Rambling, This and That
As I have gotten older, and hopefully a bit wiser, I have continually revisited my attitudes about what success means. When I was much younger, and a New York corporate banker with an MBA, the idea of being successful was defined for me, not by me. I needed the title,...
by Betsy Dane | Feb 1, 2020 | Grief, This and That
It has taken me a long time to gather my thoughts on this topic, and, while I do not choose to focus on grief, and while I have moved on to the point where my grief no longer defines me but is, rather, just part of me (and will be forever), I wanted to put my thoughts...