Re: Stacey/Pa

[Guest guest]

Wow, do we have many things in common! Where do I start?

I am fro PA, although I live in AZ now I was born in Media and lived most of

my life in West Chester. I was raised Catholic, married Catholic and raised

my 3 children Catholic, although I became divorced and later stayed away from

the church. I got RA,sjogrens, raynauds, and FM at age 32 while raising the 3

kids alone. But now is where the good part comes in.....although not for

everyone my faith as well as many in this group have literally kept me alive.

For the past 10 yrs, after raising the children, I met the most wonderful

man, I thought, a friend of many years who was eventually widowed. He was a

RN and knew RA and it's evils and still hung in there and proposed. However

after moving bag and baggage to AZ for my health, building a beautiful new

home, and having a very rough time as my grown children where still in PA,

this " wonderful " guy left me fr the first time. I am embarrassed to say it

was not the first and surely not the last. Last Dec, he returned after a year

and as we sat down with a priest, he apologized and told me as well as the

priest and my entire family that he was over his grief and ready to go

on....Wel last month he left for the final time....to " grab the brass ring "

as he calls it. I take that as greener pastures and I am not in those

pastures. Basically, I was the one who helped him through his grief and now

he has moved on.BUT...please know that during all of this I was working on my

faith and growing stronger and stronger, and Stacey it has been my lifeline.

I have returned full force a few years ago, and yes I am lonely as you are

and I feel that loneliness pain that you feel. He is not a judgmental God as

we learned when the nuns were smacking our knuckles. Nor are we doomed due

to divorce and a retired priest told me that that statement was the worst

disservice the catholic clergy did to us. Hang in there and talk to that man

upstairs as he is listening and all of this group are his angels and his

hands.

with love

Joanne