Mike and I had very different musical tastes. I like soft-rock 70's and he liked heavy metal. He left an extensive CD collection and I actually took out AC/DC and put it in my car stereo . I have BOSE speakers so when I crank it up, my heart literally pounds and I feel Mike all arounhd me. It's really exhilerating and freeing. I would NEVER have done this before, and I can just picture Mike smileing with approval and nodding his head.

Joe and I had a running "argument" about his electric shaver. He would sometimes walk into another room while still shaving and I said, "You're dropping your whiskers all over the place while you are walking around." He insisted that the razor captured all the pieces and then he dumped them when he was done. He was wrong because I found the whiskers. Anyway, now that he is not here anymore, I get excited when I find any hair in a forgotten brush, or whiskers in the razor that I have not cleaned out. I long to see any part of his body now and it seems silly that we argued about his shaving. I haven't removed any hair from his brush. I wish I had cut some of his hair and saved it before he was buried. Small but great treasures.
Kathleen

Jeff used to have a thing about the kids leaving their shoes or sandals laying around so if they didn't pick them up, he'd grab the shoes, walk out on the back deck and fling them into the yard. Many a night there was a kid fumbling around barefoot in the back yard with a flashlight trying to find their shoes. I remember one time my mom (who is 81 and very small) was visiting and I was rushing her to leave the house for something. She was wearing crocs and changed into tennis shoes quickly, leaving her crocs in the kitchen when we left the house. The next day she was wondering all over the place looking for her crocs-----Yep, Jeff had assumed they were kid shoes and pitched them out in the back yard :-) Up until then, I hadn't seen the humor in his methods, but I always crack up now when I think of it----and, yes, I've been known to pitch shoes in his honor now. Thanks for the light-hearted memory. CJ

yes, when my husband rest his soul was alive, I wanted tothrouw out the decorative bath salt bottles. Now that he is gone I cannot part with them. Some of the things I had to change in the house because they were constant reminders and some things like the towels in the master bathroom, I cannot bear to remove. I guess you never know.

new Roads,
Just had to tell you......a day or two after my husband passed away while I was talking to the mortician, it dawned on me to ask her to cut off his ponytail before he was cremated and save it for me. It turns out I should have gone and done it myself because I KNOW his hair was much longer than what I ended up with, but at least I did think to ask for it so I have something.

I also have his dentures. In the craziness of the time of death, funeral arrangements, viewing, and funeral, I never once thought about his dentures. The funeral director did ask whether I wanted them to be put in. I still have them in his little blue box and I look at them every once in a while. He used to say, "I love my teeth!" because they were beautiful, fit so well he could eat anything. For a long time before he died, I had to take care of his many personal needs, including cleaning his dentures, so I was used to handling them. His dentures, electric shaver, cologne, are all right where they always stayed by the sink. I'm at 9 months but have no desire to remove them.
Thanks for the funny story about the hair!
Kathleen

Correction to above: The funeral director did NOT ask if I wanted his dentures put in.

I discovered that I miss no one to have morning coffee with and discuss what had happened in the world overnight. No one to have a livley discussion with.

Chuck used to turn the radio off if i started singing in the car, and it wasn't because he wanted to listen to just me!

Now, my little boy laughs when i sing with the radio. It won't be long and he'll be rolling his eyes and turning it off just like his dad.

We used to argue over bread! Dan despised wheat bread and I don't care for white. After our boys grew up and left home, I could no longer buy a loaf of each. I usually ended up buying white because it was important for him to eat during his illness and he wouldn't eat the wheat.
I continued to buy white bread for 6 weeks after Dan's death. I am finally able to buy wheat, but still after 7 months, I think of his white bread every time I pick up that loaf of wheat from the shelf.

When Wayne got too sick to do anything around the house, I found myself suddenly thrust into the dreaded "outside chores" mowing, weed eating, etc. He was so fussy about his yard! I had never been on a riding lawn mower in my life so between my neighbor and Wayne I finally figured it out. I remember Wayne sitting on the porch watching me mow and telling me how I was doing it wrong. You mow up and down one time and back and forth the next time. Each time you mow you change directions. I remember getting frustrated with him thinking what the hell, the yard is mowed what difference does it make!!! Now that he's gone I find myself doing exactly that. . .mow up and down one time and back and forth the next time. . I know he's looking down still shaking his head because the rows aren't exactly straight, but it makes me smile whenever I climb on the riding lawn mower just thinking how fussy he used to be about his yard and how much pride he took in making our home and yard look nice.
Carol

It was my dad that used to have the thing about the toilet paper being on the right way but toward the end my husband couldn't reach it if it wasn't sitting on the stand next to the toilet. I find the things I am doing are kind of silly like watching programs I used to hate but he enjoyed. I still have his big old armchair in the living room and I turn on NCIS and say "Look honey, it's the season premier!" After 37 years there is just no where there isn't a reminder of our life together;[

Great topic. I am filled with ''Jerry things". He loved war movies, I love anything on HGTV. He would sneak into the kitchen and come back to TV with a colander on his head (like a helmet) and see how long it took for me to notice. Sometimes he would make fake hand grenade sounds. I wouldn't think of watching TV in another room to see ''my shows'', because I wanted to be near him on weekends, so I tolerated it. Years ago when we watched one of his favorites, Hawaii 50, we devised a sort of patty cake hand thing to the opening theme song. Now with commercials for the new show, it makes me cry, and I still do the hand thing. I loved watching him eat and enjoy himself - I was always on the lookout for crumbs on his beard (he had it in college when I met him, and only shaved it once when we got married). At his ''service'' on the beach, all of his friends had so many ''Jerry stories'' - it warmed my heart. I know that you can't bring back 39 years, he was so different, so creative, and so wacky, I remember those crazy times and they get me through the lonely times - well almost. It's one year and 6 months - isn't this the saddest thing that ever happened? All of your ''stories'' help me so much, thanks for listening.

He always listened to CBC and jazz, on the radio. I didn't care for either of these stations....now I listen to CBC and jazz all the time. I too leave the toilet seat up. There are a number of things I do that he use to do. He would call out and I do that, like I'm him, calling out my name. Maybe I'm going crazy.

Wow!!! thanks everyone for your great response! That was a fun one!