The Ladies of Brays

The ladies of Brays Island have been so kind to me. In the past week, here’s is how they have reached out: (NOTE: there are many more than the women mentioned here -- I'm just covering what happened in one week's time)

Charlene gave me a brochure for a women’s group that meets in Charleston. (She’s a former New Yorker and knows how much I miss the interaction of the city, I think.)

Peggy gave me the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society because she thought I’d enjoy reading it. “It’s so light, she said.

Marcia invited me to participate with a group of people who have hired a special horse trainer from North Carolina because she knows that I’m just learning to ride.

Ann gave me a great book to read called Against the Tide by Harriet Keyserling, about a New York Jewish woman who came to Beaufort, SC and later became a member of the State House of Representatives. I’m on the chapter where she just leaves New York for Beaufort.

And, there are so many more...Deb, Penny, Ann, Sara, Sharon, Barbara, Marcia, Laura, Barbara, Zelda, Lainey, Susan, Janet, Mary, Linda, Marianne, Sally, Liz, Sandy, Gaye, Cathy...and on and on and on...the danger of listing is that I might have left someone out. Please forgive me if I have.

So, I’m grateful to these ladies who have all reached out in a way that has touched me. In their gift-giving, they seem to acknowledge the enormous shift in my life that has required me to leave the city that I love for the man that I love. It wasn’t much of a choice, I’m happy to be with the man I adore, but there is a sense of loss in leaving the place that still represents so much for me – hopes, dreams, aspirations, activity, creativity, friends, family, familiarity.

Small gestures like these fill the cold, dark spaces in my heart, the holes of loss, like stones from the glowing hearth, heating and bringing renewed warmth and bringing my soul peace. I am grateful.