If you are opening this newsletter the minute it pops into your inbox, I can tell you exactly where I am on this Friday, October 24 at 3pm Eastern Standard Time. 

The city: Budapest
The country: Hungary 

It’s 5337 miles away from where I live in Tampa. I am at a pretty nice hotel, probably brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed for Budapest is six hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. 

What am I doing there?

I’m with my husband – soon to embark on a Danube River cruise. And we are here because we are celebrating EARLY our 50th wedding anniversary, which will take place in August, 2026. 

You may also ask why we are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary early?

And I am going to tell you.

It’s because of the terrible thing that happened to my father-in-law just six months before his 50th wedding anniversary.

My father-in-law was the best guy in the world – kind, compassionate, non-judgmental. He was devoted to my mother-in-law and adored his children and grandchildren as much as they adored him. 

My in-laws were married in Cincinnati, Ohio shortly after World War 2.

No one really knew what the root cause was that propelled him to leave us so abruptly – only that he did.

One day he was happily retired, delivering light bulbs part-time for a business owned by one of his buddies and the next we knew he was going through debilitating chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic cancer. How he got it and why he got it remains unanswered even today.

I was with him at his last chemo session where he was too weak to endure the treatment. The doc turned to him and said ever so softly, “Go home, Herb, there’s nothing more we can do.”

He was dead days later at age 70.

My mother-in-law “celebrated” her 50th wedding anniversary alone – without her partner.

My husband and I decided we weren’t going to tempt fate. 
My husband and I decided we were taking a Central European river cruise beginning in Budapest, disembarking in Nuremberg and motoring to Prague and we were doing it TEN months before our 50th anniversary.

So…..

My make-up is off.
My suitcase is unpacked.
I’m sliding between Egyptian cotton sheets.
I’m vowing to myself that I will not do one productive thing while we are here.
No counting calories. 
No answering jean jacket related e mails and texts.
No keeping up with world chaos. 
No worrying about my plants dying, my mail accumulating, my bank account dwindling. 

It’s party time – it’s time for my husband and I to rediscover “our bloom” because you just never know……. 

Hugs,