I put on my shields of armour. and didn't shower or wash my hair.

Well now we begin a new chapter... or verse or inning 

So yesterday was the year marker. #oneyear

It seems like it was years ago and weeks ago at the same time. 

I drove to The Cherokee Indian Reservation and back. 

It was a pretty day and traffic was easy. 

I got up there and traveled to the top where the Village was - a place to see how the Cherokee Tribe lived. And drove up a side curve and I think I spotted a tombstone markers - so I stopped and I chickened out going up there and just scattered some ashes in a corner. I poured water and dirt over him - I pretended I was trying to find something in my car and pouring out water bottles. 

I was protected with prayer, Indian cedar beads, a St Michael medal and my wing necklace. As I drove through the Smoky Mountains, I saw rafting businesses I recalled our trips as a child to the area. As I drove the two lane roads at times, I felt like I was driving through India. Narrow and curving with a drop off with the creeks. There were times when I had no service and it freaked me out, thinking I didn't pay the bill. 

So as I made my way I keep following the google GPS and I was not paying attention to the HUGE sign that said CHEROKEE INDIAN RESERVATION so I swung a hard right. As I traveled down the road I eye balled places to scatter ashes - one was Oconaluftee River which you are able to fish in. SO I took that as a sign it was ok. 

I drive up the side towards the village as I said before and scattered some and then more at a small babbling creek. I went into the Village gift shop and asked about possible urns or something. They recommended a wedding vase which looks like a heart. So it was perfect - red clay and native made. 

He will feel safe and sound. 

I saw beautiful baskets and bead work. But the Tribe was probably the first recycling plant. So when I threw my bottle away I thought now that's recycling right there. 

I am taking a native and putting him the hallowed ground and then putting him back in the trash to be recycled. I wonder what he will come back as. 

 Oconaluftee River 

So as I am doing this I say I hope you are happy and feel good. I love you - in various ways. This was very healing for me. It took a lot of time and effort to do this. I know he knows this. 

All I can think of is how proud that Steed was of this side of his heritage. He had a keen sense of direction, a good smell of character and walked steady. I couldn't crawl out of a paper bag. 

But what I couldn't figure out was what clan he was a part of so 

I bought a bowl of all 7 heads. 

It dropped while in bubble wrap and it got busted - red clay doesn't chip like china, it goes back to powder. So, the bruise landed in between two heads. So I would love to know which one he would be a part of.  But with not many family members left it might be hard. So I will go with the ones that were at the chip. 

Sometimes magic happens and you can't explain. 

I went to another gallery shop to see if I could find something else, but really couldn't afford some of the prices. So, I went on my journey. I rode to the river area and parked. I sat on a pile of rock and near a tree stump. I buried him under some rocks and then I was sitting in the sun, I began to cry and I looked down and saw this rock first. 

I took it as a sign that he was happy. 

I tried to keep in mind that I was on hallowed ground and sometimes you just to feel - sit still and feel the wind breeze by. I knew a lot of natives died there especially during the Trail Of Tears. This is where I tell the story - basically, one of the daughters of a Chief hid in the woods to keep from going and she eventually married one of Steed's great uncles. This happened more so than one would think. 

So I wanted to drive up to the top of the mountain but that's gonna be another time. I just wanted to do something on his year. 

I finally found it. 

After about 2 hours there, it was time to leave - The whole time I was walking about I was trying to recall a restaurant that we ate at the only time we went to the area. As I was driving I saw familiar white clapboard houses and it hit me it was there. Me being a city driver just did a sudden U Turn and pulled into the lot. I was there. The place where you brought your beer in a paper bag. It was a Greek place now, but I asked the waitress about it and she went to ask and said it was the Dillsboro Smokehouse - I was eating at the place! So while I had a beer and ate a Greek salad and some melt in your mouth fried chicken I cried. The waitress brought more napkins. She saw me to the illegal move too. 

So the whole trip was great - integrated with some great text chats with friends. One is going through a hard break up and the other is going to be a pirate soon. I love them both. Then a call with two very close friends - one who knows the signs mean something and the other one who keeps Steed in his ice box for safe keeping. Then I topped off the night with some wine and a long talk with my parents who sped all the way down to be with me that next day after he left me. And of course work stuff just like it did that very day a year ago. 

So today starts my new year - this is my New Year's Day. Will things change - no not really. Just I get to say this is the second time... I am carrying the Cherokee Indian ritual of the widow of not bathing or washing or brushing my hair. Once I am ready today I will. 

Love you to following initials. Some of them were the same folks I was talking to that very day. 

DA
DC
JH

NC

RW

AB

FK

As for my Wish bracelet - I put it on this morning and while I was in the shower it came off. I wished for something and as the belief goes, it may come true if I believe in it. Maybe the quicker it falls off and the sooner the wish will come true?

He went for a walk, a ride in the car and went shopping

And he loved it.
I took Steed to Nashville and took him to all the spots he loved.
He played The Bluebird Cafe, Exit/In, Stages and while he didn't love the BMI offices in Nashville, that's where he has his songs.
I took him to lower Broadway and said goodbye on the pedestrian bridge where a lot of country music videos have been filmed. We had looked at apartments along the river there.
He went to the Johnny Cash Museum and watched me buy a trendy CASH tee. He cringed I am sure.
He went to the women's bathroom and the dressing rooms. I felt good about it.

The Bluebird Cafe

He was happy in Nashville.
He felt wanted there.
He felt comfortable there.
He wanted to move there and we almost did 16 years ago.
But again, plans changed once his mother died and his father asked if we'd move in with him.
So here I am making pilgrimages to Music City and leaving him there.
He will prosper and his energy will give me hope.
He's given me new everything cause he wanted me to be happy and successful.

BMI - where they told him to dumb his songs down.
Thank GOD
for DC who believed him so much in ATL.

I think if I just follow his light and Cherokee sense of direction I will be ok. I will take him again I am sure. I need to take him to a few more places...

The big Grand Ol' Opry where he played last, Gruehn's guitars and I gotta find the place where he did a showcase with Liberty Jones and someone said to him "Slept Like A Baby - I Cried All Night" and he told that to Roger Mathis and he wrote the song from that.

Things happened for Steed like nowhere else.
Maybe that's a hint.

He met John Lomax there and he told
him to call Mark Pucci - which led him to me. 

Liberty Jones played here and he called me
from the pay phone to tell me all these Vandy girls
where flirting with him. I told him I didn't need to hear that.

He played here and his friend Allen worked there.

A resting place.

Two more weeks... and we will go for another ride.

... but plans fell through.

It would've been 18 years today

This time last year we were getting our laminate floors put in on our Anniversary/Easter Sunday. Steed stayed upstairs to be out of the way.

It was a fresh start - new floors and 17 years of marriage. We were looking forward to a weekend in Macon with Royal Southern Brotherhood where he told the backstage cops he was a serial killer.

So all we had in front of us was some healing time for him and building up my business for me.

We had no idea what was to happen in 25 days.

NONE.


We never really did much for our wedding anniversary at all. No dinners, sometimes a trip, or maybe a gift or card or two.

I remember our wedding day - I went to bed at 8:30 the night before at my parents house in VA. We had already gone to the marriage license the day before - we laughed about the mere fact we could just drive off and not do the wedding... we were already "married".

My mom and I went to get our hair done. My hair is miles long so the hairdresser just rolled up in little buns all on top of my head. Nothing else she could do.

I had a great day but my back hurt. Hmmmmm
So we carried on, everything when as planned - 2PM on Saturday, April 4th - I walked down the aisle to Pacabel's Cannon In D. Hated the bride's march.
The pastor whom I'd know since I was 12 married us, we had to go through marriage therapy for it. They didn't cover the issue of if you were to die early... Hope Floats right?
So Pastor Jones got to my vows and I was crying too much to say them.
So he said we will just say "Ditto"
I would kid Steed about not being married cause I didn't say them.

Steed would say you were crying cause I was marrying him. Like I didn't want to.

So we drove off to the car wash to get the stuff off the rental car, I had changed into a black/red suit and I think he was in Jeans.

I think.

So my back is still hurting.  hmm mmm

So we got on the plane to go back to Atl to drive to my grandmother's condo on Daytona Beach and my best friend had called the airlines to get the flight attendants to wish us Happy Honeymoon after they did the how to do this if we crash stuff...
So everyone on the plane clapped and cheered. It was fun.

On Sunday, we went to the Boot Hill Saloon and laughed at the panties and bras hanging from the ceiling.

Then on Monday, we went to Universal Studios. I was pale, back hurting and so on. We were in line somewhere... and I about fainted. Steed took me to the ER where I was diagnosed with a severe UTI that put me in bed for a week. I had the bridal UTI - but mine was steroids.
SO I took this huge brown pill and stayed in bed and we left that Thursday two days before we were supposed to. Thank God we were at my grandmother's condo - which was a gift from her.

So fast forward throughout the years, we always had plans, dreams and hopes.

Plans to move to Nashville fell through because Steed's mom died and his dad asked us to live with him. So we had an instant home ownership and had that plan re-routed. Then Steed had dreams of being a successful songwriter - he was but not it wasn't enough for him. I had dreams that I was living and doing. Hopes for the future after his dad moved out of the house, after 15 years into a nursing home. We hoped to fix the home and grow my biz and get more songs recorded and travel...
The last thing Steed was looking at was staying on the beach in the summer so we could relax. Never made it.

So for the next few weeks while I make my way through a lot of work, 10 CD releases from March to September. A few trips and a lot of writing to do. But I will be doing little things to honor Steed I won't post or talk about them until I am done.

Today is sweet and bitter - I am crying here and there. I even thought of a cool thing to do with my wedding dress. The picture up above is me at my final fitting at the wedding shop. Today I am starting a detox cleanse, today I have to clean up litter boxes, today I have to clean clothes... a lot of cleaning up to do.

I have had to learn to be friends with myself, not get too angry, roll with the punches and not say a word. But today I am.

But since our honeymoon went south we always vowed to do another one. But Plans fell through.