About Us
How this website came about
When my mom died of a massive heart attack on March 28, 2014, it came as a huge shock to everyone, especially to me, her eldest child and only daughter. At 75 and 45 respectively, we had finally arrived at a loving, constructive mother-daughter relationship and we had a lot of plans for the future. I was devastated.
Mom left a letter in lieu of a last will and testament, appointing me the executrix and decreeing that her properties should be sold and the proceeds divided into four: three parts each to my half-brothers and me, and the final fourth to charity and worthy causes.
By the end of 2014, I had sold her properties and distributed the funds to her sons, and an idea had ripened in my mind about how to comply with her final wish: a project to be called the "Year of Giving Generously" (YOGG) during which I would seek out and fund projects that somehow tied in with her life, her philosophies -- who she was. I would honor her life by giving away the energy she had left behind in the form of money, to people and projects that would ensure she was well-loved and well-remembered by the beings that would have mattered to her. I would write stories about how each of the projects relates to an aspect of her life, first as a website, eventually perhaps as a book.
This newfound sense of purpose gave me a way to cope with the grief, to process it in a constructive and beneficial way. Sadly, I became so wrapped up in working through my grief and in the YOGG that I didn't notice my partner of 13 years quietly slipping out of my life. By the time I returned to Germany from Thailand in April 2015, he had found someone new, and I found myself grappling with a whole new kind of grief, yet strangely akin to what I felt when Mom died. A blog I recently found lumps "the death of a loved one, the end of our physical independence, getting a scary diagnosis, and a long-time lover who leaves without a word of explanation" all together as events that qualify for grief time. (Thank you Paula for permission to link to your blog :-))
It ends with excellent advice, which essentially sums up what the Year of Giving Generously is all about:
"Take that love you felt for the lover, friend or family member who has died or left you behind and just see what can happen when you begin spreading all that love and care around in your world."
I am deeply grateful to Mom for giving me the ability to spread not only love and care, but also the material "stuff" that is so essential to making change happen in our world today. Stay tuned :-)
