Chris and I really enjoyed going to the theatre, and even while he was ill we made an effort to keep up the trips. If I stopped doing all the things I used to enjoy, just because I’m worried about stirring up upsetting memories, I’d hardly get out at all. So I determined that I’d grit my teeth and go out & forcibly enjoy myself next time something suitable was on at the theatre.
Recently they had an Alan Ayckborn play on, called Bedroom Farce. It wasn’t one I knew, but all his plays are comedies and you pretty much know what to expect. We used to make a point of going to see every one that was on in Malvern, including the am-dram ones in the church halls, which were often just as much fun to watch as the professional productions. I’m still too tired to go out much in the evenings at the moment, but there was a Saturday matinee on last week so I bought myself a ticket.
It felt very odd going to the theatre without Chris, and was yet another “first time” milestone to get over. But I’m very glad I made the effort. I don’t think the play was one of Ayckbourn’s best, but it was laugh-out-loud funny in places, and I’m sure that will have done me a world of good. And next time I go, it should be easier too.
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Good for you. Doing things like that for the first time is never easy… and yes, it does get easier the next time. (I had unexpected difficulties eating particular foods for the first time after my mom died: a soup that my husband had cooked for us all while we were in Boston taking care of things in the immediate aftermath, and an egg-salad sandwich, because the last one I’d eaten had been during a marvelous vacation immediately prior to her death.)