Three years ago, I set out on an adventure. I had been working a high stress job that I loved, but it was making me physically ill. I needed to make a change. I dropped to part-time doing clinical pharmaceutical research. I took the month of December off to recuperate and enjoy a wonderful holiday season with my sweetheart. It was his first Christmas off in forty years. Little did we know, it was to be his last.
At the beginning of 2013, I decided I wanted to try to make a living from my own creativity. I drew on a family story to come up with the name Marshmallow Ranch and created this Facebook page. I started making jewelry from antique silverware and old maps. I began networking with other creatives. Sales started to grow. I slowly gained a devoted group of followers. Then, in March, the unthinkable happened and Mr. Virgo died suddenly leaving me lost and alone.
I had about 400 “likes” on this page then. Everyone was so loving and supportive. My family rose to the occasion…even my ex-husbands and their spouses were there for me. And you were there for me. Yet I was alone in a crowded room. I bought a couple of books on grief but nothing spoke to me. I needed to write my own story about this journey. I told you beautiful readers, some of whom are still following me, that I needed to talk this through. And you were my captive audience. Many of us are boomers. We are of “a certain age”. And we are being left…on purpose, by chance. Apparently this has struck a chord with people because now I’m just shy of 4,000 readers.
I was sitting in a Starbucks yesterday as I wrote this. A woman came and sat in the chair next to mine. She pulled a water bottle out of her bag. The label said “Ritz Carlton”. Hmmmmm… Mr. Virgo was working there when he died.
“Are you staying at The Ritz?”
“Oh…no, I work there.”
“Really?!” I asked if she knew Mr. Virgo.
“Yes. He passed? Yes! Yes, I knew him. It was a shock for us. He was there. Then, so suddenly, he was gone. I was traveling and didn’t hear about it till several days after the fact. It was very sad. We miss him.”
Yes. Yes, it WAS very sad. I miss him, too. And now, three years later, there I was…sitting in a random Starbucks telling you, my loyal readers, that I am celebrating a bittersweet occasion. The birth of Marshmallow Ranch. The death of a wonderful man. And the rise of a new life as a creative writer of words, a taker of pictures, a lover of life. When a random woman, who knew and cared about my beloved Mr. Virgo, came and sat by me, a total stranger, to let me know he was not forgotten. Isn’t life beautiful? And…isn’t God amazing?
Happy Birthday, Ranchers!
❤
“Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.”
John 16:20 NIV