3-month résumé gap, advice? after 9 years as a sales associate

I have been out of work for 3 months and worry about the gap. I would rather hear the honest version than the polite one. I am nervous about being filtered out. Did anyone get past it?

I listed the volunteering and course under the same dates and kept the explanation to a sentence in the cover letter.

Keep everything in writing and save the confirmation numbers. It saved me later.