womanNshadows on HubPages

Once upon a time there was a woman who lived in Rockport, MA with the love of her life.  She was a quiet artist who took photographs, wrote poems and books, designed and built stained glass windows, designed and sewed textile art, painted in oils and acrylic, and did wood carvings.  Her love was a Marine and he came into her life to share his stories, his sense of adventure, and encouraged her to fully live all the days of her life.  He taught her to speak out loud.  She taught him that he was beautiful, scars and all.  They loved each other very much.

Together they went on long walks all over Cape Ann taking photographs and listening to the stories told by everyone they encountered.  His gregarious nature opened the world to her and she was filled with a zest for life such as she had never known before.  Her gentle adoration of him as a person, as a man, and as a soldier gave him a serenity he hadn't had since before Vietnam.   Life with her soulmate held a magic that was the perfect way for them both to live the rest of their lives.  Unfortunately the rest of their lives fell far short of their expectations and the love of her life died leaving her alone in her grief and fear, bereft from the comfort that only he could give.

Her children came and moved the womanNshadows down to North Carolina to be close to her daughter.  She is enduring, surviving this great loss of a man she admired as much as she loved, by writing about what his death feels like.  She is going through all the pictures she took from their walks, cataloging the hundreds of images she took from where they had been together, and through this search, she is remembering all the wonderful times they shared.

She is a sad, pensive woman now who is living without the one who made her smile, the one who showed her fun, the one who loved her.  She writes to be heard because it is what writers do.  She is still an artist but her voice is now heard, again, only through her work.  She has found a small place for her silent life by taking making Memory Quilts out of the clothing of the deceased.  It is a tangible comfort she can offer those who have lost, while she faces a life without her Marine.  It is a difficult journey for this womanNshadows to be without her hero.

Her creative websites are:

www.renaissanceartist.blogspot.com, www.myspace.com/recycledjeans

Her grief site is:

www.womanNshadows.blogspot.com