When I hear one of Donovan’s favorite bands playing on the radio, I remember the exact time he made me stop what I was doing to watch a video of one of their songs when it first came out.

In This Moment was the band; The In Between was the video. He called me and I had to watch the video — He said he wanted to hear my reactions. Now, In This Moment is one of my favorites. All their songs bring me to tears. It’s bittersweet.

I started thinking about back when we were both terribly sick in the hospital with Covid and pneumonia. We were talking to each other on our phones and laughing about things because we thought we would live …

I was talking to you about memories and how we would share them further down the road of life. We took pictures to capture those memories. What was captured was the worst memory of all. It is a memory of a different kind.

Stupid covid, sigh …

I lost my husband Tim and one of the things I miss most about him is how he always made me laugh. He even said it was his goal to make me laugh at least once every day, and he did.

One of my favorite laughs was the night after our wedding. We were in a hotel and I had laid my nightgown on the bed and went into the bathroom. When I came out, Tim was wearing my nightgown and laying on the bed doing the Burt Reynolds pose! I laughed so hard.

When it came to making me laugh Tim would do just about anything. When we went food shopping together, this 40+ year old man would tell the workers that he needed an adult because this strange lady was following him. Some of the workers would laugh, knowing he was joking, but some really didn’t know what to think and that just made it funnier when they were unsure what to do.

“2020 was the worst year due to Covid. One disappointment after another. No regard for another person. Most of all, I lost my son, Bobby, to the virus. He was special.”

My mom was a loving caring person. She raised 5 children and worked. She had many grandchildren and great grandchildren she loved with all her heart. She was a strong woman with a loose tongue — she had no filter.

She worked at a hotel for 30 years, retired, and enjoyed spending time with the little ones in the family, playing games on Facebook and watching her soap opera, Days of Our Lives. She enjoyed talking on the phone — there would be days when she and I were on the phone for 3 hours.

My mom was my biggest support person when it came to my health. She was there when I first got sick at age 5, and as I grew up she fought doctor after doctor until at 16 I was diagnosed.

I miss my mom so much.