That's my husband in my avatar. We were together for eleven years and had known each other just shy of 16 years. He passed away unexpectedly on 9/18/09, exactly one week after his 38th birthday. I've received so much support and prayer from this site and my COF group. I am truly thankful to everyone for their kind words and condolences. I continue to receive cards and messages. I wanted to let you all know that I truly, truly appreciate it, even if my swiss cheese mush brain makes me forget to get over to your profile pages to say so.

Some of you have asked if we had any children. Nope, at least, not the two-legged variety. We have two siamese cats that we called our girls. They're a big comfort to me right now.

Others have asked if he was in the military. Rick was not in the military; he spent a year in Iraq as a civilian. He was a firefighter on a military base in Tal Afar from 2006-2007.

Thanks to this site and my friends on it for the huge distraction it's provided for me. Hanging out here can distract me from a quiet house (sometimes, anyway!). I've also started creating again. It seems to be therapeutic at this point.