Keep it Real Wednesday
July 19, 2023
Riding with Rosemary
Thank you for reading “Keep it Real Wednesdays” and for all your loving and kind encouragement along the way. Wednesdays started as a way to keep things raw and real as a caregiver, to share the many ups and downs of caring for a loved one in their final season. Then Wednesdays transitioned into documenting so many stories Rosemary shared with me as we rode over 3,000 miles on her bike together. Also, some Wednesdays were very personal stories, like our journey with Wade’s cancer and Rosemary dying.
In some ways, Wednesdays have served as a public journal of sorts. It was a way for me to process emotions and to reflect.
And I am grateful for all of them, all 222 weeks that I have shared our story to date.
Through it all, you have been welcoming, kind, encouraging, and supportive. More than a few of you have suggested I gather my writings into a book. In some ways, I felt Rosemary’s stories needed to be told so I decided to explore your promptings.
I met with a published author and former English professor a few months back who suggested I just start writing with no intention of the outcome. I shared my lack of confidence in writing, and she smiled and said “There is software and editors to help with style and grammar, but software can’t put heart into words, and you do that”.
“Heart into words?” I never thought of it that way, but she is right. Over the course of the last 4 years, you have gotten to know ROSEMARY’S HEART through MY words.
That was powerful to me.
So, that’s what I plan to do. I plan to tell Rosemary’s story, a child of the greatest generation, and see where the journey takes me. It could be that I write it to write it and it stays on my computer. Or maybe, it will need to be shared.
Time will tell.
The name of the book?
RIDING WITH ROSEMARY. I have one chapter finished. The beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning. That’s all I know right now.
The rest will reveal itself in time.
THANK YOU for your encouragement and support
I would have NEVER taken this step without you.
We will see what this next journey is like.
#ridingwithrosemary #theblessingbike #keepitrealwednesday
