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She Said to Me, “Despite the Size of Your Shrine, Joel, Your Wife is Not Coming Back.”

Sometimes, it takes another who has experienced the passing of a great love to understand the comfort of memory-keeping.

Joel Eisenberg
5 min readDec 13, 2024
The author and his late wife, Lorie Girsh-Eisenberg, in 2022

Introduction

Photos. Videos. Memorabilia purchased when Lorie and I were living the good life, having earned our keep through decades of hard work and — thanks to her — smart investments.

Article after article on Medium.

Cherished memories, collectively my “shrine,” as with the above photograph now stowed on my fireplace but also as with others displayed on the walls and variously throughout our house that for many months after her unexpected November, 2023 passing of complications from a ruptured brain aneurysm became no longer a home but effectively a bed rest.

Then, eleven months later, in anticipation of reuniting in-person at my house with my college girlfriend after over 40 years — a widow who lost her husband similarly in 2019 of a hemorrhagic stroke — I was advised by well-meaning family members to put some of those physical memories away to avoid any awkwardness.

I took another tact. I told my college girlfriend of those physical memories. I also told her I…

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Joel Eisenberg
Joel Eisenberg

Written by Joel Eisenberg

Joel Eisenberg is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and producer. The Oscar in the profile pic isn’t his but he’s scheming. WGA and Pen America member.

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