Pat Sponer Paholsky

Bringing Richard Home Pat Sponer Paholsky

It is 1955 when seventeen-year-old Pat Sponer first met sixteen-year-old Richard Paholsky at a wedding. Instantly attracted, they quickly discovered they were complete opposites. He was confident, bold, and social, and she collapsed into a cocoon when someone spoke to her. As their unorthodox courtship began, Pat and Rich soon fell in love and eventually married five years later. In a retelling of their courtship, marriage, and life together until his death in 2018, Pat shares insight into their relationship that includes entertaining tales about their travels together on Route 66 a few days after they were married, their experiences in California during the sixties, and later in Michigan as they started a family. Within her short vignettes, Pat leads others through her memories and life with Rich including the time leading up to his diagnosis, death, and her eventual journey through grief after he was gone. Throughout her story, Pat provides hope for anyone suffering a loss that healing comes with reflection, gratitude, and time. Bringing Richard Home is a story of love, loss, and healing as a widow offers a window into her sixty-plus relationship with her husband and her journey through grief after his death.