My mother has been gone for just over three years now. Her physical departure was a time of both grief and relief, for I had been losing her, bit by bit, over the previous decade. My father’s death in 2005, followed by my youngest brother’s sudden death four years after my dad’s, left my small […]
Thank You for Loving Me Over the Long Haul
by on February 12, 2020 Leave a Comment
I’ve seen a whole lot of Valentine’s Day celebrations in my long life. Some of them have been memorable; most of them were over before they made an impact. A few were golden. Those shiny ones are fun to recall—when love was new and we were young. Sweet cards and notes, saved over the years, […]
Losing and Finding
by on December 18, 2019 Leave a Comment
It has happened twice in twenty years. Twice. The first time was in Florence, Italy, on a 30th Anniversary trip with my husband. We were tired, trying to find a legal parking space for our rented car, and then staggering uphill, in an unfamiliar place, searching for a Rick Steves’ suggested hotel amid the confusion […]
Coming Undone
by on October 9, 2019 Leave a Comment
A couple of Christmases ago, one of my daughters gave me a fun gift—a small, gray corrugated board-in-a-frame with a set of white letters and numbers that can be snapped into place to make words or short phrases. I quickly sorted through the alphabet and experimented with several different messages to mount on that little […]
The Darkest Day
by on April 18, 2019 Leave a Comment
It’s always darkest before the dawn, at least, that’s what they tell me— “Each new day brings resurrection.” But to get there, we must always move through the dark. There are gifts to be found in darkness. That, too, is true: Rest, coolness, quiet. But terrors hide out in its creases and folds, ever ready […]
