“Want to go outside, Willow?” I asked in a gentle voice. She struggled to her feet, stepped forward, and stretched her painful back legs. Her hind knees had ACL surgery when she was young and they stiffened
Read more →Family and Friends
The two of you sent a photo from David’s home in North Carolina last week. You’re 52 and 49 now, but the photo reminds me of a 1974 photo of curly headed four-year-old David holding six-month-old smiling
Read more →In late February, my son David who lives in North Carolina sent a text to his brother and me. “Did you see the sky?” he asked, including a cell phone photo of the evening sky taken in
Read more →Snow pelted the windows and obscured the black night sky. It was 6 pm and my husband Vic was usually home by 5:30. I’d been through this before because we lived in a lake effect snow area
Read more →In July 1972, they moved with their baby boy to a crumbling farmhouse on a dirt road and immediately got to work. She cleared cobwebs in the cellar while he made shelves from old barn boards. Like
Read more →In Mexico, Missouri where Dad had gone to high school and Grandpa was a Friday regular at the Jefferson Hotel, I was an insider. Daddy knew everyone and, as far as I could tell, everyone loved him.
Read more →“What do you want to do when you visit, Mom?” I don’t hesitate. “Let’s go to the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory. I haven’t been there for years.” My son David laughs. He knows I love butterflies, and
Read more →Two days before my dead husband Vic’s birthday, I received an email from a stranger in England. Kel Mansfield had found Vic’s first cousin in Canada through AncestryDNA, and she told him about Vic. After looking at
Read more →Daddy was sad and quiet. Mommy cleared her throat and dabbed her eyes with a tissue. Uncle Jim and Aunt Martha arrived without my cousins. I was 9 years old and soaked in impending doom, but no
Read more →My son David arrived from his home in North Carolina a few days before Christmas. We’d planned good food, mellow vibes, and hikes. Two years of Covid made visits rare, so it was a gift to be
Read more →