Tag: family

• July 15, 2022

  The Last Witness

  There is a poem I love called The Last Uncle by Linda Pastan. It captures the feeling I had when my own last uncle died. My mother’s brother John was the last person I knew who had witnessed the Great Depression and WWII. Everyone who knew me as a child had now left the planet. […]
• December 10, 2020

  It’s Just Christmas

  Yes, it is. December, that time of year when all around the Western world, people party and shop for pretty things and sing and eat delicious sugary goodies. But not this year. Not if we want to survive. The Covid pandemic has put a big wet blanket over the holiday season. Which has me thinking […]
• March 23, 2018

  Lipstick Print on a China Cup

  Photo by Pexels Coffee doesn’t like me anymore. It upsets my stomach. But whenever I see someone walking down a city street, lidded paper cup in hand, I want one. In my early 20’s, coffee and a cigarette started my day. On the way to work, I stopped in the lobby of the Erie County […]
• November 24, 2017

  Bits of Christmas Light

  My Jewish friend once said he felt left out at Christmas, that the sparkling lights on the trees and buildings “are not for me.” A teacher we both knew told him about the pagan origins of the festivals of light celebrated around the world at the darkest time of the year. “The lights can be […]
• April 5, 2017

  When Things Were Not So Different

  We’ve been through tough times before. The world is like that.
• December 20, 2014

  A Simply Christmas Birthday Cake

    At Christmas, or maybe just because it’s the end of the year, I try to make everything perfect. Big and little worries come out and tug at me to fix them. But I can’t. It’s just a holiday, that’s all, I tell myself, albeit a big heavy one laden with all kinds of expectations. […]
• November 11, 2013

  A Veterans’ Day Salute

  My cousin Wayne rode into town with his mother on the Sunday afternoon train and arrived at Grandma’s house wrapped in a whiff of danger. My sister and I were good little girls who knew how to  behave. We sat on Grandma’s porch glider, careful to push off gently, toes to the floor, rocking slowly […]