My life certainly hasn’t been a fairy tale, but I often consider myself very blessed. Many of my readers know I lost my husband in April of 2018, and soon after that, I met a wonderful man while attending a grief counseling group. The fate of our meeting gave everyone chills that listened to our story. Even Cincinnati.com thought it was worthy of print.
Julie (me) losses the love of her life John and soon after meets John who lost the love of his life Julie after thirty years of marriage. Two beautiful love stories end in suffering the loss of love. Two amazing people coming together to share in each other’s loss, help each other grieve, and love each other through it all.
Somewhere along the journey, two beautiful humans got tangled up in the juggling of everyone’s grief. We forgot about ourselves. We jumped too quickly, not giving ourselves time to grieve our own losses and getting caught up in the love of it all.
This brings me to today, January 8th, 2023. My 55th birthday. It is with great sadness I am telling you this. I am starting over. After four years in a beautiful relationship with a wonderful man who is kind, loving, and the most optimistic man I have ever met in my life, I decided it was time to move forward.
I have no regrets about the last four years of my life. We did many amazing things and supported one another through some of the roughest times of our lives. I met a lot of beautiful human beings in Hamilton, OH. People who have changed me for life. I love you all. Please remember that!
In the end, I was searching for much more. At times I thought God put me into this situation to learn patience and test my capacity to love those challenging to love. But, in the end, I realized I was being challenged to love myself even more. Something I have battled with all my life.
After my husband passed away, I remember visiting my doctor, who told me, “Julie, now is the time to take care of yourself. You have been taking care of everyone else for your entire life. Now is the time for you”. So I did that for about six months. I started traveling the world. I was physically and mentally in a good place, and then like a beautiful rainbow after a storm, I jumped into a relationship and put myself on the back burner again. I was trying to please everyone and anyone who came into my life at the cost of my own.
Acceptance, family, friends, community, and love are all I ever wanted. Learning to let go of those who no longer deserve my energy is what I got. I wish nothing but the best for everyone. I hope somewhere along the way I taught you something, as you have taught me so much.
Those who know me well and have followed me for years will totally understand why I have written. Those who never took the time to know me will see this as judgemental, and crazy, and never understand why I would write about this in the first place. Each ok in there own way and the latter no longer holds me back.
I leave you with this. Unfortunately, no true love story ends in a fairytale. It ends with death. Because if you truly loved someone you are with them until the end of life. The fairy tale comes in the beginning. My wish for all of you is that get to experience the amazing love I have, as I got to experience it twice in my life time. I feel so blessed God graced me with LOVE at all. If you have love, hold on to it tightly. If you want love, seek it, be it. Be the love you want from others.
Luv, Luv,
Julie 
