• DC widow blogger Marjorie Brimley with late husband Shawn Brimley
    Missing Shawn

    Young Love

    I was flying to the Cayman Islands to take a break from my life.  It was just after Christmas, and the plane was filled with people vacationing.  I located my seat, and then I saw the people sitting next to me – a really young couple who were holding hands. I took a deep breath and sat down.  I’ve written before about how hard it can be at times to hang out with my happily married friends.  But a newly in-love couple….well, that’s a whole other ball game. “Hi!” the girl said in the happiest voice I’d heard in a long time.  She was darling, and so was the boy…

  • DC widow blog writer Marjorie Brimley and family at children's baptisms
    Missing Shawn

    Home

    The pastor was talking about Jesus, and my mind was wandering. Sometimes, in the middle of a service, I find myself immersed in whatever is happening at the front. The music or the sermon or the prayers can whisk me away into a place where I’m totally focused on whatever it is we are doing in that moment. I love those times in church. They feel the most holy to me. But I was in a new church with my extended family over the holidays, and the pastor at the front wasn’t one I knew. He was engaging but I wasn’t fully listening. Still, I liked how he was talking…

  • Shawn Brimley hiking with kids outside DC
    New Perspectives

    Go, Go, Go

    Shawn and I met in Japan. We were just out of college, two young kids looking for adventure and a job that would support our wanderings. We ended up in the same town teaching English, me at the middle school and him at the high school. We loved travel. From the first moment we met, we talked about where we wanted to go and what we would do in those places. When we spent a weekend day together even before we were dating, we would get up early and explore whatever city we were in for at least 12 hours. In fact, I have a vivid memory of one night…