Jan Bono’s Blog

A year ago this weekend, a friend and I attended the annual UFO Festival in McMinnville. We both dressed up in self-styled “alien” costumes, and enjoyed perusing the vendor booths, watching the parade, and dancing in the street to various bands. A few weeks later, I...

It’s possible that the three saddest words I’ve ever typed are “would have been.” Today Rick would have been 62. In February, he told me he wanted to have one more Christmas. “Cheri got one more Christmas, and I want one too. And I want to spend it down at the beach,...

Rick’s wife of 37 years died in February, 2010. Her urn had held a place of honor in his home office ever since. Highest on his list of “final requests” was his desire for the two of them to have their urns buried together at Willamette National Cemetery. He was...

“I want my Memorial Service at the Venetian,” Rick told me too many times to count. “I want a slide show and a reception and I want you to do the eulogy.” The first time he brought the subject up, he was preparing for a surgery to replace his 7-year-old ICD...

Today is the first Sunday in May, and that makes it Loyalty Day in the United States, rivaling only the Fourth of July for patriotism, parades, and enthusiastic flag waving in this small community in which I live. In the past, I’ve enjoyed many of the varied...

I’m having a really tough time. Rick died on April 3rd—nearly a month ago—and I have not had a decent night’s sleep since. I thought his death would be somewhat “easier” for me to accept by now, but it’s just not happening. And when I do sleep, I grind my teeth It’s...