Hello, my dears. Over the Fourth of July weekend we dedicated a carved stone for Val, on the ridge overlooking her family ranch. She built many cairns on that ridge over the years, and last year we climbed over the jumbled rock piles, rebuilding her tumbled cairns and raising new Continue Reading
debrarian
The Valerie Garrison Art and Education Scholarship
My dears, Our much-loved Val Garrison left us one year ago today, a fact which still seems inconceivable. I miss her every day. Here is something good: the Valerie Garrison Art and Education Scholarship is launched! Miles and Sandy and I have chosen the very first recipient from Val’s hometown Continue Reading
birthday relay
Val was almost exactly a year older than me. 22 days separate our birthdays: March 8 (mine) and March 30 (Val’s). Every year when my birthday would swing around again, I would get this companionable, kid-like goofy happy feeling from being the same age as Val for most of March. Continue Reading
dahlias
A wonderful woman, Betty Garrison, left the world a year ago today. She is sorely missed by me and many others. I’m doing my best to remember her on Val’s behalf too. This year I’m gonna pick out some new dahlias in her honor.
food memories
It’s Val’s 45th birthday today. A friend told me she celebrates her late nephew’s birthday each year with his favorite foods: pizza and beer; and sometimes cupcakes. She asked: What were Val’s favorites? Which made me happy to think about. So here are some. Val loved to eat kale and tempeh; halibut Continue Reading
birthday cake
Good job being born, Val Garrison. I celebrate you today and every day. The sun is out, and I saw the first purple nubbin of a lilac bud beginning to open. One of your favorites. Thanks for being one hell of a fine human being. I sure miss you. Brooke got you Continue Reading
pieces-parts: January-February
More jottings from my grief journals. 1/13/14 R asked me about the term “bucket,” and Val using it as an endearment. Here’s what I told her: To be honest I am not sure where she got it. But it seemed to spring up a few years into my knowing her Continue Reading
pieces-parts: December
More jottings from my grief journals. 12/8/13 I am not so easily overset as I was. My cup is no longer full-up, sloshing, to the brim. So I am not constantly spilling over at the merest additional drop. On the other hand, I am able to push real recognition away. Continue Reading
pieces-parts: October-November
More jottings from my grief journals this fall. Writing, talking about it feels like rooting around, scratching out a depression in the earth, trying to make a place to fit myself and curl up. * OCTOBER PIECES-PARTS “How are you?” (early October) I went to a large event with a Continue Reading
pieces-parts: September
I wrote about living with grief this summer. I’ve been jotting down what I could throughout the fall, too. I haven’t been able to shape it into a whole essay yet — it’s more piecemeal, as the experience of my grief itself has become a little more piecemeal, the dough Continue Reading