For the Love of Joseph

By Benita Glickman

In For the Love of Joseph, Benita Glickman’s latest memoir, the author chronicles signs, dreams, and visions from Joseph Larizza, the love of her life and husband of thirty-eight years. Messages of eternal love and wisdom from the afterlife provide priceless life lessons that accommodate Benita’s adjustment to his passing, and facilitate her growth.
You mustn’t be so hard on yourself. Your life has changed now that we’re not together in the physical sense.… What was once so important to us, isn’t going to be that important to you now. Although you’ll always remember who we were together, you must thrive on your own. Try to accept that. You’ll always have my love, whatever you do. As I live and breathe within you, know I’m smiling down at you. What’s important now is your happiness.
Benita reflects on the meaning of love and the vital part it plays in life. She compares it to a seed that—when joyously planted and nurtured—strengthens us and paves our way for growth.
“It’s what I felt from, and gave to, Joseph, every day we spent together.… But for the love of Joseph, I mightn’t have healed as quickly, and couldn’t have flourished in the same way I did.”
Journey alongside the author as she revisits memories of her beloved Joseph and explores the fundamental workings and principles of the afterlife. You’ll smile and shed a few tears as you experience the couple’s eternal love through Joseph’s messages from the Other Side.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Sep 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665724746

Benita Glickman

Benita Glickman, a retired language teacher, mentor, and consultant to Brown University is an award-winning poet, short story writer, and grief and spiritual memoirist. Her memoirs Greetings from the Other Side: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Afterlife; Then and Now: Snapshots of My Life; Living Between Two Worlds; On a Path to Spiritual Enlightenment; Spirits Walk Among Us; For the Love of Joseph; and It’s a Sign! are affirmations of love through loss, grief, growth, and healing.

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Copyright © 2022 Benita Glickman

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except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Archway Publishing

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and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-2171-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-2473-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-2474-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022910688

Archway Publishing rev. date: 9/23/2022

This book is

dedicated to

Joseph Anthony Larizza

Dedicationimage.jpg

who dedicated his life

to learning, teaching,

and loving me.

Also by Benita Glickman

Greetings from the Other Side: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Afterlife

Then and Now: Snapshots of My Life

Living Between Two Worlds

On a Path to Spiritual Enlightenment

Spirits Walk Among Us

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I – A Poetic Start

An Elegy for Joseph

Within Living Memory

Seeing Is Believing

All my mornings start with mourning

Sestina of My Life with Joseph

Somewhere along the Way We Just Stop Dreaming

Part II – Life’s Gifts

Chapter 1 A Retrospective of Our Life

Chapter 2 Friendship

Chapter 3 My Birthday

Chapter 4 You’re Irreplaceable to Me

Chapter 5 Together Again

Chapter 6 Bambina, Reincarnated

Chapter 7 A Message from My Dad

Part III – Divine Favors

Chapter 8 The Nor’easter

Chapter 9 Jury Duty

Chapter 10 At the Courthouse

Chapter 11 E-ZPass

Chapter 12 The Magic of the New Moon

Chapter 13 Our Gratitude Journal Entries

Part IV – Joseph’s Spirit

Chapter 14 The Cherry Trees

Chapter 15 The Ancient Tree

Chapter 16 Do You Remember?

Chapter 17 Traditions

Chapter 18 Telepathy

Chapter 19 An Outing with Friends

Part V – Focusing Ahead

Chapter 20 Bringing Friends Together

Chapter 21 Getting a Booster Shot

Chapter 22 One More Summer

Chapter 23 A Difficult Decision

Chapter 24 Signs from Joseph

Chapter 25 Our Caribbean Adventure

Part VI – The Nuts and Bolts of It All

Chapter 26 We’re All Interconnected

Chapter 27 Next Lives

Chapter 28 The Afterlife

Chapter 29 The Rules

Part VII – A Poetic Finish

Joseph’s Visits Pantoum

Our Changing Relationship

Color Me Blue

My Miracle of Love

The Witching Hour Villanelle

Conclusion

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I acknowledge the same people in each book I write.

I’m humbly grateful for their kindness and support.

Joseph, my partner, whom I’ve loved since first sight,

Family members and friends, to make a long story short.

I’m humbly grateful for their kindness and support.

My social worker, my editor, and my writing coach,

Family members and friends, to make a long story short.

They listen and encourage me without reproach.

My social worker, my editor, and my writing coach,

Joseph, my partner, whom I’ve loved since first sight.

They listen and encourage me without reproach.

I acknowledge the same people in each book I write.

My heartfelt appreciation goes to all of you, in this world and in the beyond, who facilitated—each in your unique ways—the fruition of this memoir: Joseph Larizza, Bubbe, Mark Glickman, Esther Glickman, Bambina, Myra Josephberg, Neil Josephberg, Jerry Josephberg, Cecile Hall, Marie Hall, Pat Rogoff, Marla Toscano, Tanya Rosado-Barringer, Eva and Ray, Susan Cohn, Tanja Pajevic, Terri-Lynne De Fino, Margaret Reyes Dempsey, Karen Noé, Nancy Viera, Lyssa Black Fassett, Diane Dettmann, Autumn-Toelle Jackson, Liz Petrone, and Judy Croome.

INTRODUCTION

remembering you

in the silence of the night

waiting for a sign

By the time you reach my age, you’ve most likely had to deal with death and dying on more than one occasion. Many of my close friends have lost their spouses. Some have remarried, others found companions; still others, struggle on their own.

Introductionimage.jpg

I am fortunate. Although Joseph left this world more than three years ago, he visits me, and we spend time together. It’s an unusual arrangement, I grant you, but it suits me just fine. In fact, I’d have it no other way. Joseph’s love blankets me with the warmth and comfort he provided throughout our thirty-eight years together.

When my longtime friend Lillian’s husband, Henry, died, she said, It’s so sad, Benita. I had a life. My child is grown now; he’s married and has children of his own. They live far away. I’m so alone without Henry. You’re my only friend.

A teacher friend, Sylvia, had been married for close to fifty years when her husband died. Within a year, she had a companion, someone both she and her husband knew and socialized with.

She said, Benita, I’m sorry but I just can’t wrap my head around what you’re saying. You’re my friend, and I should be able to support you; but although I tried, I can’t read any of your books.

I ran into Julie on the street, a neighborhood friend, whose husband had passed just two months earlier. Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke about her loss. Trying to console her, I said, It’s possible Sal will visit to let you know that everything is OK. Are you prepared for that?

Her face distorted, her tearful eyes widened and nearly fell out of her head. She looked at me as though I were from a different planet.

What are you saying?

When I explained, she succinctly waved me off saying, I don’t believe in any of that.

A neighbor in my building who lost her husband a couple of years before Joseph passed, said, I wouldn’t read your books if you gave them to me. They couldn’t be true. I’d much rather read a mystery.

Everyone’s entitled to his or her beliefs, and if they serve well and nourish the soul, I’m all for it. We need to believe, have faith, and trust in something.

Before Joseph visited me from the Other Side, I wasn’t at all sure there was an afterlife. My belief arose from firsthand experience. Seeing is believing. The visions I experienced piqued my interest; I wanted to know more and devoured as much as I could get my hands on. In light of my experiences and the knowledge I obtained by voracious reading, I can honestly say I believe there is an afterlife, a spirit world, and our souls are eternal. We reincarnate, and most of us have lived before. Many times.

I try to assure people that after we leave the body that no longer serves us, our spirit lives on. I don’t force my beliefs on anyone. Those who believed in the afterlife before I had visions and dreams from the Other Side, continue to believe. Those who didn’t, may never believe unless they are open enough to have a spiritual experience. For those who are undecided, my books may be a contributing factor to believing. If believing helps even one person to get through his or her grief, and my books have played even the tiniest part in his or her healing, then I’m grateful.

I have a close-knit group of friends, close to my age, some a bit younger than I am. They believe in the afterlife and the spirit world. They’ve had their own experiences.

Charity lost her husband about six months ago. She said she saw him as a black hawk. He followed her wherever she went, until the day of his send-off. Family and close friends fanned his ashes out into the open waters of the sea, and released balloons up into the air. The black hawk flew out over the water, and she never saw him again.

Lynn is open-minded. She wants to believe in life after death, life after life, and life between lives. She wants to believe her loved ones are OK and watching over her from the Other Side. She watches out for their signs.

Eva has had spiritual experiences since childhood. Her early experiences were troubling to her, and she denies them. Although intrigued by stories of spirit, she’s afraid and wants nothing to do with them. She speaks to them firmly, asking them to leave and cross back over into the light. The beauty of spirit, if addressed respectfully, spirit will heed and honor the requester.