• DC widow blog writer Marjorie Brimley's daughter Claire writes "I love you Dad" on memory board
    Family & Friends

    Colon Cancer Run

    “Looks like the date of the Scope It Out run has been set for March 31,” the text read. It was from my friend Ilan. After Shawn died, Ilan spent countless hours organizing the first group of people to run in this spring 5K to raise money for colon cancer. I knew he wanted to continue the tradition this year. I looked at his text again.  Could that date be right?  It was.  The colon cancer run was scheduled for Claire’s tenth birthday.  While I had a whole string of events planned for her, I knew that we’d also have to participate in the run on the same day.  I…

  • DC widow blog writer Marjorie Brimley's father, Tom, plays legos with her son Tommy
    Family & Friends

    He Pushed the Button

    The call came out over the loudspeaker. “If there’s a physician on the plane, can you please press your call button?” My dad put down his book and pressed the button. The flight attendant came over. “Are you a doctor?” she asked. “I am,” he said. She told him he was needed in the front, and he followed her up there. My dad was en route to Texas for a week-long break. He was going to play golf with his brother and his friends. He would also get to see our extended family. He’d spent the past two months caring for my kids without so much as a glimpse at…

  • Austin Brimley playing hockey with DC Widow blog writer Marjorie Brimleys husband Shawn
    Family & Friends

    The Fans in the Stands

    “Nice shot Claire!” yelled the man sitting next to me. I barely knew him, but he was a parent of another girl on the basketball team. The shot had actually bounced off the rim of the basketball hoop, but this random father was still yelling encouragement to Claire. She looked in our direction. I gave her a thumbs-up. As I’ve written about before, sports are not my thing. I don’t know the first thing about whether my kid is off-sides or needs to go back and tag first base before running to second. I don’t watch sports and apart from a brief stint as a cheerleader, I don’t play them…

  • Hand writing a letter to DC widow blogger Marjorie Brimley and her daughter
    Family & Friends

    The Letter

    The letter arrived in the mail a few weeks ago.  It was addressed to me.  Inside, I found two notes from an old friend of Shawn’s – someone he knew in university who we’d kept up with over the years. “I wrote a note to Claire,” the first note said, “and I want you to look over it and see if it’s okay for her to read.” I opened up the next piece of paper.  Inside was a 2-page typed letter addressed to my daughter.  “Dear Claire,” it began, “You might not remember me, but I have heard about you since you were born. Your father Shawn and I were…

  • Shawn and Marjorie Brimley in their house in DC before cancer
    Family & Friends

    Salsa in my Cup

    Two years ago, Shawn and I threw a party that was particularly crazy. We didn’t really mean for the party to get so wild.  We just wanted to have a few friends over to celebrate the year and toast our successes, failures, and ability to have merely survived.  As I remember, we were still reeling from the 2016 election, because that was the election that was supposed to have meant a big, important job for Shawn and ultimately didn’t pan out that way.  Instead, we threw a party. Somehow, we all had way too much wine, in the way that you can when you aren’t really trying to have too…