Shared Pain: After the Day of the Dead, Tributes to Those I’ve Lost this Year

[odanu]

Originally published at Am I the Only One Dancing?. Please leave any comments there.

Nuni, on the left, was a pirate princess that year. The headless wench is me. On the right is Chloe, who is not nearly as fond of dressing up and thus isn’t ‘asked to.

This has been a year of many losses for me, of two legged friends and four, and I always, on  or about Halloween, which is Samhain in the Celtic calendar, and the day before the Day of the Dead celebrate the lives of those I have lost. Remembering that shared pain is lessened, I recall them.

Some I cannot name. Confidentiality does not end with death, so the two therapy participants or family members of participants cannot be named, but I do honor them.

In addition, my husband’s grandfather, David Martin, a bomber pilot in WWII and lifelong curmudgeon extraordinaire, died this summer at the age of 95, having outlived his beloved wife ‘Bertie’ by nearly a decade. 

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