Mom got the first inkling of Parkinson’s when she fell into the flower garden for no reason back in the summer of 2003. It turned out there was a reason but the knowing of reason took a long time — well over a decade — […]
All posts filed under: Memoir
Traveling at the Speed of Light
I didn’t know if we could jam 10 helium balloons into my little Mazda but we did, along with all the other makings of an 86th birthday celebration for my mother. We drove up to the entrance of the Inn where my mother had a […]
Everywhere
“Hey, there’s a sunset,” Gail says. No one was expecting this. We’d spent the last few hours of the afternoon with rain dropping pleasantly on the screen house tent, water spattering our arms through the netting. When it came time to cook dinner we’d all […]
Abracadabra. The (Delusional) Stories We Tell Ourselves
I once knew a couple who took stock of their marriage every year to decide if they were going to renew the contract. There is something ghastly about undergoing an annual performance review of your love, but it does speak to the need to ward […]
Moon Rock
Several lifetimes ago I moved to Washington, DC and married a man who made it a habit to regularly visit the Air & Space Museum. On his way in and on his way back out he would touch the moon rock on display at the […]
Recognizing Lovely
We all want to feel alive and feel the vitality of life coursing through us but lately my hands have made me aware of the very opposite, aware of vitality slipping away. Lately, these hands have become a big problem in my life. I’ve got […]
Philip Henderson, Here I Come
Philip Henderson, though I don’t know you, there were apparently a great many things I needed to tell you about myself. To you, I was an unknown middle-aged woman who showed up in your driveway early one Saturday morning while you stood outside enjoying a […]
Plum
Something in my mind said “Plum,” so I circled back home on my green Schwinn 10-speed once again. I’d already done this 7, 8, 9 times. It was a beautiful summer afternoon, not too hot for an aimless cruise around town, but those plums were […]
The wisdom of trivia
Mom always goes first. She’s spent time — who knows, maybe all week — getting organized for her Saturday Zoom share and needs to get it out there before she loses her train of thought. We are scrupulous in getting right to her once everyone […]
Be cool
She fell a little too much in love with me so I had to dump her, but it could just as easily have been me falling in love with her. This story is about what it takes for us to do what we do. Oh […]
Scene 5 — Guard Dog
Growing up I went by Liz, except for one day in 7th grade when I went by Lizard to Jeff Humphries. I was not a fan of his momentary nickname for me, but I was even less a fan of the period when I actually […]
Scene 4 — Rabbit
Greg Pickle was the first kid I knew who had real life tragedy strike. We were in third grade when his mom crashed the car and killed his little sister and crippled him. He would forever after walk with a limp. And I would look […]
Be cool. 