One of my reasons for writing this blog is to help me put memories to “paper.” I want to remember the good times and the bad; celebrations, memories but also the awful loss of Laurie that brought me to do this blog in the first place. But if all I write about is sad stuff, who really is going to want to come back and read more?? My sadness doesn’t have to be your sadness. So I sometimes want to write about more than the grief and loss that I feel from losing Laurie. We made incredible memories and many of them give me a reason to smile. These are 2 of those.
In my last post, I shared how Laurie and I met for the first time. Just thinking about that night brings a smile to my face. There are 2 other “first meetings” I want to share.
On the 2nd weekend I visited Syracuse after meeting Laurie, we found ourselves back at the next AOL party. We had a great time again. When we closed down the club, Laurie and I were going to head back to the hotel instead of going out with friends for the 3am Denny’s run. I wish I could recall why she sidetracked us but I can’t. We ended up arriving at her moms house where she had moved with the boys. We found ourselves sitting on the patio at 3am in the morning trying to be as quiet as possible but that was hard with all the laughing and talking we were doing. I recall being petrified we’d wake up her mother and/or the boys.
Before I share more, let me tell you I LOVE my mother in law Carol. We have a great relationship and I truly look forward to talking with her and seeing her. I know not every man has that, but I do!
Laurie and I are sitting on the pitch black the dark laughing, and all of a sudden I hear a window sliding open and I hear my future mother in law say “Laurie, what are you doing?” Laurie laughed. I was so scared I nearly pee’d my pants. Laurie responded that we were just talking. We were. And her mom responded “Do you know what you’re doing?” I knew what she meant just then! Laurie said we were leaving and she’d be back in a few hours. We bolted for the car. We were 28 and 33 but yet felt like teenagers. That was my first official “meeting” of my future mother in law. Rightly so, she was concerned Laurie had met “the guy from near Albany” online, was going out most weekends with him and now she’d done it, she showed the potential Axe Murderer where she lived! That would become the running joke for years, I could have been an axe murderer. 😱😱😱
Fast forward 2 months and you’d arrive at the first weekend I met the boys. Laurie and I had been dating about 8 weeks. She decided she’d bring the boys down to camp for the weekend at Fox Hill campground and I’d meet the boys on neutral territory for the first time. My brother and I had set up camp for them to arrive. Laurie was late (are you seeing a pattern?). When she finally arrived, we unpacked the car, set up the boys sleeping bags in the tent and headed out to Dairy Queen for our first meal.
Grief After Loss 