Aging in Santa Cruz

Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach is starting to venture out in the evenings with her friends. She is discovering that many of her fellow seniors are having quite a good time in Santa Cruz and that quite a few venues are packed and humming with high-spirited folks “who remember when the Beatles first came on the scene.” She still misses her husband, Michael, who died suddenly in February after a two-month battle with cancer. But she is trying to venture out into the world a little and lists a few places she has discovered. 

Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach lost her husband six months ago to a fast-moving cancer. They had been married 40 years and she is using this space to chronicle her grief. Here, she details her first trip to New York City since his death, the memories and nostalgia it evoked. “Keep kissing, even in public,” she writes. “Feel the warmth of fingers entwined.”

Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach can no longer pump gas. Her arthritis gets in the way. She also can’t sweep her yard or fix the stuff that breaks in her house. These are all chores her late husband did. Here, she thinks about – and thanks – all the men who have stepped in to help her since her husband’s death.

Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach continues to chronicle her grief after her husband Michael’s February passing. Michael was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma cancer just weeks after he retired. He died two months later. Sternbach is now learning to build a different life than the one she and Michael had planned. 

Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach lost her husband of 40 years to cancer in February. The diagnosis was sudden – they learned he had cancer only in December. Now, she is adjusting to life on her own and doesn’t like it much.

Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach can’t believe summer fruit is here and her beloved husband of 40 years is not. Michael died in February, two months after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. Recently, she misplaced her wedding ring – the one he put on her finger just months before he died. Here, she writes of loss and longing and how unfair it is that time keeps moving forward as if nothing has changed.

Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach continues to navigate her grief after losing Michael, her beloved husband of 40 years. Since his death, she has been inundated with flowers, food and love – reminders, she says, of how much Michael meant. She has also been plagued with thoughts of what is next. Should she change her life? Sell her house? Escape or embrace the memories?

Lookout columnist Claudia Sternbach continues to chronicle her struggles as a widow. Here, she writes about the numbness in the days after her husband Michael’s death and how taking on a table-building project brought her solace.