Goonies Never Say Die

Why I will never give up on love.

Jen Nilsson
Hello, Love

--

Jeff on a sunset walk near Haystack Rock six months before he died. Photo by the author.

Before I met my late fiancé, I didn’t believe in soulmates. At least not the kind you want to fuck.

After nearly a decade of post-divorce dating, I considered hope and heartbreak to be symbiotic.

I did believe in the kind of soul-level connections you find inside powerful friendships, the kind of intimacy that bends and grows over laughter, wine, and shared experiences of hope and heartbreak.

And I certainly believed in soul-level chemistry. I’d been swept off my feet enough times to know that there are people out there who can rise to the challenge of meeting my every physical desire while falling seriously short when it comes to communication, trustworthiness, or a willingness to build dreams together.

But could one person be all of those things? An intimate friend and a passionate partner in life?

I didn’t think so. I was jaded enough to swipe left on the whole concept of soulmates.

And then I met Jeff.

A Day like Any Other Day

Every minute has the potential to be life-altering, but we forget that most days, don’t we? It’s only in retrospect that we smile (or scream) at the memory of our unsuspecting selves walking out the front…

--

--

Jen Nilsson
Hello, Love

Grief can be fully avoided only when we are not fully living. Writing a memoir on journeying through grief & globe 🌎 More at lensofjen.org/living-in-the-ashes/