Today, I’m on a never-before-traveled road of my new “alone journey” since my wife Joyce passed away. For whatever reason, a poem by Robert Frost came to my mind while I was taking my morning walk. So, before I tell you of about this coming day, I’d like to share that poem. I really like Frost’s pen, which created such beautiful images through his reflections.
“The Road Not Taken”
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I’d like to tell you of my upcoming afternoon, also “with a sigh.” I along with my two daughters and son-in-law will meet at the Ft. Leavenworth National Veterans Cemetery in KS for my wife’s burial. Although I’ve shared in such an experience as other family members or friends have been lost in the past, this is so much different since it is all about the very hurtful loss of my wife, Joyce. I never realized that grief can have such sharp edges. I walk this journey/road today, and it hurts worse than walking on broken glass with bare feet. I never imagined it could be such a deep hurt.
I’m reminded of the marriage design God had for Joyce and me, and particularly for me. As Adam reflected on the gift God gave him, Eve his wife, God’s gift is no different for me: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” {Genesis 2:24} Since Joyce and I became one, with her passing a significant part of me has been lost. That’s my “alone journey.” But since our marriage was designed by God, held together and blessed by Him, today is also okay for me.
I (we) have a favorite photo of us together. It was taken about 5 years or so before she was diagnosed with PD. This special photo is in a frame on our dresser, and I love it! To my eyes and heart, Joyce is an exceptionally beautiful woman!
I’d like to share this photo with you good Henry Folk on this day.Take good care…..PT7
- Us together in Oregon.JPG (168.15 KiB) Viewed 1309 times
