Grandpa and the Grandchildren’s Gallery
This past weekend we buried my father-in-law. He was the first grandparent my children and their cousins lost. As the family mourned, of course, we told our stories. The four cousins – my son and daughter, and my nephew and niece – were close in age, born between 1978 and 1985. All four are now […]
Family Pictures: Capturing History As the Mind Cannot
Both my dad and my mother’s father took lots of pictures over the years. As kids, my siblings and I were always smiling at the camera for my father or grandfather, and often both of them at the same time until my grandfather died. There were four standard poses for the photos – in front […]
The Magic of the Sea
My husband and I were just in Southern California and spent most of our time near the ocean – driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, walking on beaches and on cliffs above the sea, looking at boats in the harbors, and kayaking in Newport Bay. (But no sunbathing; not active enough for Al.) I was […]
Cady Killers
Those of you who have read this blog for awhile know that I hate spiders. I have a new enemy now – cady killers, more formally known as “cicada killing wasps.” My husband thought he found evidence of termites in our backyard a couple of weeks ago – holes under the concrete pad of our […]
Dad, Me, and the New Capri
In the fall of 1972, a few months after I got my driver’s license, my father bought a sporty new Capri sedan. The Capri would be my mother’s car, replacing her small Ford Falcon station wagon, the car in which I had learned to drive. The Falcon was an easy car to drive – small, good […]
Happy Mother’s Day to My Mother, the Writer
I spent the first thirty years of my life trying not to be like my mother. But around my 30th birthday, the realization dawned that, however much I protested, we are in many ways quite similar. My mother was valedictorian of her high school class and a Phi Beta Kappa English Literature major in college. […]
Take the Plunge! Start a Journal
“The only way to start is just to start – take the plunge.” With these words, I started keeping a journal ten years ago this spring. I’d had a diary when I was a girl, one of those pink books with the gilt edges and cheap metal lock. But I was too afraid of my […]
My “Family Recipe” anthology coming soon!
My anthology of short stories, essays and poems will be published and available soon. Here is a sample essay, “Normally Dysfunctional,” which was first published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family. I hope you enjoy it. Normally Dysfunctional “At least you’re not my real mother!” My daughter’s words interrupted my tirade. I […]