My maternal grandmother was always happy. At least that’s how I remember her. Her birthday was in mid-March, so I think of her often this time of year. As I’ve mentioned before, we called her Nanny Winnie. She was too light-hearted for “Grandmother,” though she could have been a “Granny.” […]
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A Valentine’s Day Charm
On my last trip to visit my parents, my father and I were sorting through some of my mother’s belongings. She no longer needs her fancy clothes and jewelry, now that she lives in an assisted living facility because of her dementia. My father wanted my help in deciding what […]
Continue readingMy Son, My Mother, and Hallmark Cards
Several months ago I was cleaning out a drawer that should have been cleaned out long, long before. I found a file of greeting cards from the year my son was born. (I won’t say the year, but I will say he was born in mid-February, in the middle of […]
Continue readingWhat a Difference a Year Makes!
A year ago I was suffering from the worst stomach flu I’d had in a decade. And within days, my daughter would break her leg skiing, requiring me to leave my sick bed and fly to Vancouver, British Columbia, to care for her. Plus, my mother had just moved out […]
Continue readingDragons and Clinkers in the B House
When I first saw the scene in the movie Home Alone where poor little Kevin tiptoes down to the basement and confronts the fiery maw of the furnace, everyone in the theatre laughed at his fear. Except me. Because I remembered a similar furnace from the house where my family […]
Continue readingGood News of Great Joy
I wrote last December of a muddled Christmas story about Super-Jesus that was told in my family one year, a story that confused my mother. Here is the version of Super-Jesus my mother would have remembered from her childhood: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustusthat the […]
Continue readingMy Dawning Awareness of Tragedy: President Kennedy’s Death
The first President I could name was John F. Kennedy. President Eisenhower was in office when I was born, but he was gone before I knew what a President was. Kennedy held the Presidency when I became aware of the importance of that office. I recall sitting in my pint-sized […]
Continue readingMy Grandmother’s Celtic Cross
I’ve written other posts this year about jewelry I received from my maternal grandmother—earrings she bought for me and another heirloom she gave me. Today’s post is about a Celtic cross pin that belonged to my grandmother, which my mother gave me shortly after my grandmother died. I don’t […]
Continue readingHaunting Book: Wild, by Cheryl Strayed
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed, is the only non-fiction book I’m reviewing in my haunting books this year. I almost didn’t review this book, because I was disgusted with the author throughout most of the time I was reading her memoir. But […]
Continue readingHaunting Book: Defending Jacob, by William Landry
This week’s haunting book is the story of a family in turmoil. The protagonist is Andy Barber, a prosecuting attorney whose teenage son Jacob is arrested for murdering a classmate. Did Jacob kill the other boy or not? The reader is left wondering throughout the book. Andy’s instant reaction is […]
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