Eleven Years

 Yesterday was eleven years since Hisao passed away.

A few months ago when I was cleaning out some bookshelves I found my diary from that time.  In it I had written that I wanted time to go fast and slow, fast to move away from the intense grief, slow because I wanted to spend time with my kids.  I felt that time would lessen the pain and heal me a bit.  The pain has indeed lessened and I can look back on things and laugh without ending up in tears.  But sometimes I still get hit by the grief.  As the kids grow I feel sad at all the things Hisao missed out on, all the things the kids didn't get to do with him.  The other day I saw a camper car.  One thing we dreamed of doing was hiring a camper van and traveling around Japan.  Never got that far!

So another year.  It seems so hard to think that much time has passed.  Hannah was only 10, she's now a young lady of 21!!  Mikey was just 20, almost 21, and now he's in his 30s.  So much water under the bridge!

Found some lovely photos!!

On the back it says 1967, so maybe 6 years old

on the back with his older brother

High school, his painting was displayed at the local art museum

early 20s

when we first met

At Mom and Dad's house