On Loss and Healing

Happy New Year everyone! We are debuting a new comic and a new style. Now in color!

Yes this is a comic series and we generally try to keep things lighthearted. But this blog was created with the intent of finding laughter in the good and the bad as we navigate through married life and recently we experienced a loss that affected us both very deeply and I felt we couldn’t post another comic without addressing it.

Right before the start of the holiday season, we lost a very close and dear friend. (If some of you were wondering why we were a bit more quiet than usual and didn’t send out a holiday card this year, this was a large part of the reason.) It was very sudden and unexpected. She died while on vacation with her husband. While Mr. P and I have experienced losses of loved ones in our lives, this was the first loss that affected us both equally. Anyone who has ever liked one of our posts on Facebook would recognize the name. She was so supportive of our blog– always commenting, liking and sharing every post. She was also very supportive of Mr. P’s artwork, commissioning him to do a family portrait holiday card which was finished just days before she passed.

I’ve never made friends easily. I have a hard time trusting people and letting them in. We have even fewer couple friends, as we don’t often find couples that we share similar interests with. But Godiva and Thomas were one of the few close couple friends we had. Godiva and I bonded over food, Hello Kitty and many other interests. Thomas and Mr. P both enjoy eating expired food, wearing Unstealthiest Ninja t-shirts, watching sci-fi shows and more. We became almost instant friends with them and in the short few years we’ve known them, we’ve share many meals, cooking nights, game nights, hopes and dreams. They were our forever friends.

Our hearts were broken after her passing. I think we both felt the loss on many levels. Of course there was the loss of someone we loved and interacted with almost daily. Our hearts also broke for Thomas, because we knew first-hand how deeply he loved her and she him. Their love was a constant inspiration to us. But we also grieved of the loss of a very special person. Because she was very special. If you spent just five minutes with her, you would immediately recognize how special she was. She loved, loved life and found the bright side to every situation. She was so very kind, always making sure to ask how you were doing, even when she was dealing with a lot of things in her own life. She was the most generous person I’ve ever met. My spirits were always lifted in her presence and every time I spent time with her, she made me want to be a better person.

We were very fortunate that we had our Japan trip scheduled in early December. Being far away in a foreign country helped us escape from our grief. Of course, our trip was filled with constant reminders of her. Pictures I would have texted her, souvenirs I would have bought, things we knew she would like. But being on vacation did help us deal with it better. We had moments of sadness, followed by lighter moments of laughter. Like what happened at this coffee cafe.

We hope to share more adventures from our Japan trip and we have some other things planned for this year to provide more updates. Until then, stay safe and have a wonderful weekend!