Dancing Dolly: Revelations of a Widow

By Eva Caine

Dolly married her high school sweetheart and spent the next forty years as one part of a couple. When she suddenly lost her husband, she embarked on a search for a companion or new mate to fill the empty place in her heart. Her adventure took her to some bad and some good places, for which she was totally unprepared.

The story was written in the hope that it might help some other widow to be prepared for the pitfalls and failures a single woman may face in a world heavily weighted in favor of men, where the rules of conduct are so different for men than for women. Woven throughout her story, hopefully, are some lessons, lessons she learned too late; and because of that, she may have lost the one and only perfect mate in the whole world for her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543464504

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

DANCING DOLLY

D OLLY STAYED AT the home of her youngest daughter, Janie, and her family for about two weeks following the memorial service for her husband, Johnny (not John — Johnny , as everyone, even his buddies, called him). It was a lovely service with a large attendance, despite the location being so far from most of their neighborhoods and being so unexpected. Many people showed up who were not really expected. His eldest daughter, Carly’s 2 oldest sons, Mike and Darryl, played their guitars and harmonized on a song they composed in his honor. There were many tears shed by all those who knew and loved Johnny. Dolly was grateful for the huge display of affection and for all the hugs, which she needed. She was grateful also for the loving support and the company of her family during this hurtful time. She and Janie attended grief support sessions in the same church where the memorial was held, and she found the sessions somewhat helpful in assuaging part of her grief because they were faith based, unlike most of the ones offered by hospitals and other institutions. Dolly had no tears left at this point. She had sobbed so hard at the hospital when Johnny’s life support was disconnected and the family were all around his bed praying over him—and again in the church when the service was being arranged—that she didn’t have the strength to cry anymore.

Dolly was especially glad that Johnny’s brother Wes and his wife, Dorothy, from California joined them because Dorothy was such a great help with organizing and preparing refreshments for the guests, and she had been so supportive as they had waited in intensive care, hoping that Johnny could miraculously recover after the brutal surgery his body had endured, as he lay chest open and heart stopped for over eighteen hours. Many of those who knew of the botched surgery thought Dolly should sue the hospital. The surgeon had actually told the family of the mistakes that had been made and apologized to them. In subsequent inquiries, Dolly learned that the backup support or the physician replacement had been offered to the surgeon but had been refused. Dolly felt