{"id":41550,"date":"2024-06-08T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2024-06-08T07:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=41550"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:54:00","slug":"widowed-are-tears-recyclable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/widowed-are-tears-recyclable\/","title":{"rendered":"Widowed: Are Tears Recyclable?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Widowed<\/a>
Widowed: Are tears recyclable? Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Are tears recyclable?<\/p>\n

I found a tissue just now crumpled up on my bed next to my pillow. It’s from last night when I had big tears and needed a tissue.<\/p>\n

The tears showed up when I spotted Jon’s handwriting on an old grocery list — Jon’s handwriting, Jon’s plans for dinner that night.<\/p>\n

Jon had plans. He had plans<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Thus the tears. There was no stopping them.<\/p>\n

Widowed: Are Tears Recyclable?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The tissue is recyclable. It can go into the recycling basket that we — I — keep in the bedroom.\u00a0It can be recycled along with the empty vitamin bottles and the sticky notes.\u00a0But how about my tears? Are tears recyclable?<\/p>\n

I have things to do today. I haven’t time for this kind of deliberation.\u00a0I drop the tears into the recycling bin along with the sticky notes, and wish them well.<\/p>\n

Read about life with the real Jon at, “One Broken Ankle, and Two Lives Grind to a Halt. Or, Why You Should Definitely Stop and Tie That Loose Shoelace.”<\/a>\u00a0 On the passage of time, “Widowed: Yes, It Does Get Easier, Sad to Say.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"widowed:<\/a>
Jon liked to shop for groceries. Here at the Budapest market in 2015, he did more looking than shopping. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"widowed<\/a>
Spotted: Jon’s shopping list. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"widowed<\/a><\/p>\n

A tear-drenched tissue — do I put it in the trash? Or into the recycle bin? I wondered, I’m widowed: are my tears recyclable?\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[34,29,82,2854,2855,2856,2419],"class_list":["post-41550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-widowed","tag-dont-miss","tag-jon","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-recycling","tag-tears","tag-weeping","tag-widowed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41550","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=41550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48755,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41550\/revisions\/48755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}