Married Gay Man

October 27, 2025

“You and I”

One of my favorite time of years is coming up, NaNoWriMo. If you’ve been reading this trash blog for some time you will know I have done this event a few times in the past. The first time I participated, I wrote my first ever novel length work of fiction. The one I subsequently have edited the last 12 years of my life.

For this years assignment I decided that since it starts on Charlie’s and my wedding anniversary (as it does every year) I wanted to write about our life together. It was something I had come up with back in April when I had a TikTok go viral. It was a brief cut of our “Not There Yet…” video blogs along to the song “I love you, I’m sorry” by Gracie Abrams. (I’ll post it below.) It exploded more than I had ever thought possible. And it showed me that people cared. The comments are where it really thrived because I had people tell me their own sad stories or give their condolences. Of the hundreds of messages 98% of them were the beauty and kindness humanity is capable of offering.

This lit a fire in me.

I decided that I was going to write a book about our life together. I began brainstorming and came up with web outlines that really shaped the narrative of our life together. It gave me the perspective that there is something there TO share. It wouldn’t just be a random collection of events strung together with only the narrative thread that I would one day lose him. There was advice for polyamory, infidelity, growth, marriage, family, and eventual loss. And not to forget it would give my husband’s death even more meaning.

But like most of my good ideas, my enthusiasm fizzled out and I was consumed once again by the shroud of my depression. Which is fine. I’m grieving. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

To keep my idea alive I kicked it down the road and told myself to do it in November, when I have the chance to participate in the month long writing event. Also, around the same time period of when we started dating in 2003.

I had debated with myself if I wanted to keep it private or post each entry onto my webpage. What I have come to is: for the sake of uninhibited emotions I will write it for myself. Of course, with the intention that I will get it published because why would I write something if not for a reader to read it?

This morning, to get myself in the headspace to begin this month long journey, I put on an album Charlie had given me when we first dated, Jason Mraz’s “Waiting for my Rocket to Come.” It makes me think of him every time I listen to it, and of those early days. This little exercise sent me into a downpour of tears.

The first song on the album is “You and I.” In the past it never really stuck out, but today it did for the simple fact that out of all of the songs on the album (within my “genesis” playlist) this had it’s own album art. Every other track has the actual cover, where he’s sitting on a curb talking to a rooster.

As the song played on the lyrics popped. For the first time I really listened to the song, but within the context of doing this project. It felt like Charlie was talking to me, and that’s what brought about the tears.

(I would post the song for you to listen, but I am no longer using Spotify as they support ICE. And I am nothing if not a bleeding heart hippy liberal douche.)

As a result, where I had been unsure if I was really going to follow through, this gifted me the resolve to actually do it and not just say so. It was my husband prodding me from beyond the grave. Well… beyond the wood box that currently rests on my dresser, in which he resides. (I am cackling at my own joke. I hope you did too.)

@opinionatedandcrazy

My husband was diagnosed with ALS during 2020 and passed 4 years later. Even with a pandemic that didn’t stop us from doing road trips. #als #grief #loss

♬ som original – ᴀᴛʟᴀs
April 30, 2024

Your Husband is on the Dresser

I never expected to learn things about myself in the absence of my husband. I thought I had a basic grasp of my idiosyncrasies and character flaws. As I have since discovered, I do not. Turns out that I am still very much afraid of the dark and what lurks within it’s depths. It is either the thought, or the truth, that entities lay just beyond my field of vision that causes me immense amounts of fear. I’m kept up late wondering what the energy I am feeling could be. And it’s always things just out of sight.

When my husband was around I never thought of them. They rarely crossed my mind, unless I had some sort of dream or had thought it was a good idea to watch a scary movie before bed. (Y’know the only time it’s appropriate to do so?) If I had had any fear drifting to sleep or waking with panic, he was always there to calm me. Every time. I always felt safe with him there. His presence made me stronger, even when ALS had made him completely immobile. I don’t know why.

There were times, when he had a job out of town, that I got a glimpse of this “Josh.” I would wake up and look right at the open door. (Yeah, I sleep with the door open by the way.) I could sense or feel something watching me. Panic would grip my body as I tried to tell myself that I was alright, there was nothing there. I’d reach out to my husband and text him, even though I knew he was asleep. Just knowing he was there, somewhere, made me braver.

Now, I have nothing. Well… Almost nothing. Yesterday I retrieved his remains from the funeral home and placed them in the bedroom. His ashes now rest on the dresser across from where I sleep. Oh, and a portion in the living room with full view of the TV, just in case.

Tony darkly joked on who had what part of him. I said, he probably had a leg and the blue, tropical themed shorts he was wearing. Maybe an eye too. A finger. God, we’re fucked up.

We are people who find humor in grief. It’s our way of processing all of the ache that comes with loss. We fill it with a mutated sense of “joy.” For us it’s also a way to honor Charlie. He had a darker sense of humor than all of us. He had to, to process all of what had been given to him.

It’s nice “having him home.” Also a little weird, knowing that my husband’s charred remains are just on the opposite side of the room in a rough wood box. As he would have said “it’s creepy.” Partially, but I’m in that weird grief state of mind where I will take anything I can get to be a band-aid for the emotional ache. In grief we do the weirdest things to process it. I’ve been wearing his deodorant, clothes, and sleeping where he passed. That last one would have given him the biggest “ick.” For someone who was so comfortable with his own condition he was sure hung-up on the small details.

“Why are you sleeping there? That is where someone died? That’s creepy,” he would have said.

“It’s not like you’re still there, Charlie,” I would have responded.

I wonder if having his ashes made it even more real… He is really gone.

April 23, 2024

Loss in Polyamory

It’s funny, everyone always wants to talk about the “cheating” parts of polyamory and never about the fact that you have to travel the ups and downs of life with other contrasting personalities. When Charlie and I first opened up our marriage I was excited to see where it went but also so utterly terrified. What if he found someone that was “better” than me? It was the one thought that ran through my mind over and over. Luckily for me my husband had a type and it was “broken people.” He had a savior complex. He found the ones who were at their lowest and tried to rescue them. It is funny how many don’t want to be saved or out-right refuse it. (By the way, I’m not saying that I was or am better than them.)

In the end, all it really did (for both of us) is really appreciate the other. I know that sounds so counterintuitive to what society teaches you, but it made our bond that much stronger. We saw the best parts of our relationship and welcomed the parts that had become “familiar.” Most relationships would see it as being stale or stagnant but it became the thing that we treasured most.

Through our experiences with polyamory we have learned a lot through trial and error. There is no guidebook, and even if there was one that could prepare you it could never hit every aspect. Each relationship, like any connection from one to another, is different. Nothing in life is ever as precise as a puzzle piece. The only thing you can 100% expect from it is the requirement for communication and honesty. And honesty isn’t just being open to one’s “extra-curricular activities,” it is being truthful with one’s own emotions. The amount of self-awareness required to co-habitate with multiple personalities is insurmountable.

What none of us were prepared for being in our polycule was dealing with loss. Everyone is always hyperfixated on the sexual component which (spoiler alert) really does not come into play as frequently as those would believe. Then again, it might be different for others. I can only attest to my own experiences.

Before my husband passed he was so concerned with what would happen with his boyfriend when he was gone. He would repeat “you have other josh” to me so much to the point that I was growing exhausted with the observation. Sure I have him, but in a relationship people are not employees, you can’t just replace one with another. Charlie also neglected the fact that the one thing he and I held most similar is wanting to be the “white knight.”

How I describe his boyfriend (Tony) and I is that he is my brother. And I mean that. I am weird in the sense that I mean what I say and say only what I mean. It is genuinely difficult for me to give a compliment when I do not feel it is deserved. So, like I said with my friend Nick (lol IYKYK) who I have lain claim as my brother, it is a fact that comes from the bottom of my heart. It is stating that I love them more than I could love a family member and I will be there for them no matter what. No matter how much they may piss me off, irritate me, or hardly speak to me I will love them unconditionally.

So, my husband not taking that into the equation bothers me, but then again maybe he was pushing me to step up to the plate. Which… the man was a master at manipulation.

Navigating loss in this environment is so strange. I, again, try and struggle to keep everything balanced. I want Tony to know he will be okay, that he is wanted, and that we’re both in this together. With Josh I have to make sure he does not feel excluded, that he is apart of this also. I just worry my efforts are “indirect” and more distractions than solutions.

I will do what I must for everyone to feel okay and, much to my chagrin, it is impossible. Someone gets hurt in the process. Always. I just have to make sure we handle it through communication and reassurance.

I am trying… and will continue to do so until my efforts appear to be worthless.

January 11, 2024

Reflections in an Imaginary Basin

Long ago, in an age of innocence, I was a huge Harry Potter fan. The books called to me from the end of the Target endcap and once I got past the absurdity of the boy on a broomstick, I fell deeply in love. Of course this was before the true nature of the writer came out, and before I ever valued the lives of my community more than the belief that something (I could never understand) was weird. Yet you live long enough and you see your heroes turn into villains. It’s the curse of humanity. We are deeply flawed creatures, and unless we take efforts to grow and change we will slowly turn into twisted creatures.

I’m not saying that Rowling is a twisted creature, she is just not doing anything to stop it from happening. I guess that is the curse with riches. It corrupts.

There is a particular moment in my favorite book (The Half-blood Prince) of the seven volume series that has stuck with me. I never understood why until recently. I wanted to share it but… I feel like it does two things. One, that it is self serving and makes me sound like a martyr. Two, it makes me look like a monster. There is no space between for me. It is either one or the other.

When I shared it with the boyfriend he told me that it is normal when caring for someone. It is a lot and it weighs on you. There is only so much we can handle as caretakers.

The scene in particular is a chat that Dumbledore has with Harry prior to entering the cave to retrieve Voldemort’s locket. The headmaster tells his bright eyed student that no matter what he says, do not stop. Keep going. It’s cryptic and unnerving until we see it play out, and it lives up to that expectation. It’s when Harry feeds the poisoned concoction from the basin to Dumbledore. He begs and pleads with him to stop, but Harry pushes on because he made a promise that he would keep going.

That is how I feel. Everyday. I am pleading for this all to stop, but I made a promise with myself to keep going. I must. There is no stopping, because this is for the greater good.

While the rest of the Harry Potter saga is derivative, it does have it’s moments that truly shine. This, for me, is one of them. It (as the kids say) lives in my head rent free. Especially the disappointment in realizing that the entire endeavor was for naught. Dumbledore suffered for nothing. He died, for a decoy. Well… he died to fulfill the promise Snape made to help Draco kill him…. but… semantics.

All of this is summed up in the loss of childhood innocence. The series, the loss of a hero, and the death of my spouse. Everything ends at one point or another. Just like that basin of poison. It was only momentary… but you keep drinking “the poison” because you have to.