12/15/15 - Moving on and a spiritual visit from my wife

Being alone, even when you have a lady in your life is sometimes very rejuvenating. I have a cabin in the Adirondacks which I have had for over 40 years. It is only a Spring to Fall cabin. However I went up there last week for four days of monastic living. Just a wood burning stove and 20+ acres of woods. Of course, being closed for the Winter I had to bring water for washing and toilet. It sits off a very large lake. I hiked the trails I had made and walked along the shore of the lake. Awesome!

Getting back to the past. One morning as I was waking up my wife appeared to me. She was wearing a blue blouse and was smiling at me as I lay in bed. The apparition lasted for what seemed like several minutes. I immediately called my Sister who has experience in these matters. I wouldn't call her a spiritualist, but she is sensitive to ghosts and can often see them and speak to them. She said that the veil between worlds is weakest at the time between when a person is asleep and just waking up.

Months later my wife appeared to me again as I was waking up and she gave me a kiss on the lips. Sounds crazy doesn't it. But it sure felt real. She has not appeared to me since then. My Sister says this means that she has completed the process of passing over. I am personally convinced that dying may be the end in this world as we know it, but death  is also a doorway into another world. Heaven and Hell are mentioned in the Bible but who is to say it is not something different. Oh well, what do I know, I just experienced something wonderful.

Internet senior dating site. As I mentioned in a previous post that my wife and I had great closure on our lives and thus my grieving period was rather short. After six or so months I decided to start getting out. I went to singles dances, took dance lessons and found a senior dating web site. I met some really nice women. Unfortunately, some of the photos posted were "a bit" earlier in their life, and some lied about their age. Now this is really crazy. One woman I had been talking to on the phone sounded nice and I called her for a dinner date. She said she was in Florida visiting friends and would be taking a short cruise by herself (her friend backed out at the last moment). I said why don't I fly down to Florida and join her, sight unseen except for photo on the web site. We had a great week of dining, beach and cruise ... however I think she was looking for a "husband" to take care of her. I was not at that stage. I just wanted a woman to travel with and share a little sack time.

Now here is  where it gets strange. My wife told me not to mope around after her death but to find someone and have a new life. One of the women on the dating site sent me and email to start a conversation (and jokingly she still reminds me of who sent the first email) . I was interested because she was cute and lives in my town ... hmmm. We set a luncheon date. Across from the table sat this lovely woman with curly hair and beautiful blue eyes. Wow. She was nice. We talked for a while over lunch and then moved to my house to talk some more. We were so interested in each other that tea time moved into wine time. We agreed on another date. Well that was it. We have been together now for over three years. And she lives only 1.2 miles from my house. We both joke about my wife putting us together, or at least stirring the pot a little. And while we never met in town, I knew her brother.

Up next: a short essay on "Married on Weekends".