{"id":33928,"date":"2021-07-24T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T07:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=33928"},"modified":"2026-06-06T12:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T12:42:20","slug":"widow-laughs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/widow-laughs\/","title":{"rendered":"When a Widow Laughs. Or, a Backyard Work in Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_33966\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33966\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/ noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-33966 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_8076-RETOUCHED2.webp\" alt=\"the widow laughs at the BACKYARD-CONSTRUCTION-MESS\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33966\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Backyard construction work makes for good company for a widow &#8212; and laughs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Some mornings I wake up with a sinking feeling in my stomach &#8212; it&#8217;s going to be another terrible day without Jon. My husband has died, and there&#8217;s not a darned thing I can do about it.<\/p>\n<p>Other mornings I wake up hopeful. I remember that I have something to look forward to. Something with a future.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Feet on the Floor<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>I put my feet on the floor and look out the window &#8212; a beautiful thing is happening in my backyard. My lovely old bricks are being brought back to life.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe title=\"Historic San Francisco Paving Bricks Grace Our Backyard Staircase\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/paXoSzlW0jU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Video by Peter Rivera<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n<p>Peter the contractor and his hard-working crew have made short work of demolishing the crumbling, 60-year-old brick staircase in our back yard. And for the past few weeks they&#8217;ve been putting it back together &#8212; way nicer than it ever was.<\/p>\n<p>Peter and I talk about things. The bricks &#8212; how shall we lay them out? The pile of moss rocks &#8212; shall we use the small ones to border the staircase? Or the big ones?<\/p>\n<h5><strong>The Widow Laughs<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>We ponder the rocks, we change our mind, we change our mind again &#8212; together. We laugh at ourselves changing that mind of ours.<\/p>\n<p>Down in the backyard, standing in the dust, I wonder: I&#8217;m a brand-new widow. How is it possible that I am laughing?<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know the answer. I go ahead and laugh.<\/p>\n<p><em>Read about\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/02\/20\/living-room-makeover\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Our Living Room Makeover &#8212; We Made Do With Our Old Stuff.&#8221;<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_34003\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34003\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/ noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-34003 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_7957-2.webp\" alt=\"the widow laughs with pleasure at the progress of brick-stair-construction\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34003\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The bricks are held in place by pressure treated 4x4s filled with gravel, concrete and mesh.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33960\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33960\" style=\"width: 1116px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/ noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-33960 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9452-resized.webp\" alt=\"crumbling-brick-staircase\" width=\"1116\" height=\"628\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33960\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Before:<\/strong> Our brick staircase was falling apart. The mortar was crumbling and parts of the stairway were sliding downhill. I&#8217;ll publish &#8220;after&#8221; photos in a couple of weeks when the work is done and the mess has been cleaned up. <em>Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/ noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-33966 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/IMG_8076-RETOUCHED2.png\" alt=\"widow laughs during BACKYARD-CONSTRUCTION-MESS\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Standing in the mess that is our backyard, talking and laughing with the landscaping crew, I wonder: Is it OK when a widow laughs?\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2021\/07\/24\/widow-laughs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[1986,43,34,472,1188,2486,82,2182,2419],"class_list":["post-33928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","category-widowed","tag-back-yard","tag-beauty","tag-dont-miss","tag-garden","tag-house","tag-laugh","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-remodel","tag-widowed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49492,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33928\/revisions\/49492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}