All day, I’ve been thinking about how nice it would be to have a grilled cheese sandwich, not just any grilled cheese sandwich…a grilled cheese sandwich prepared for me by someone who loves me. I remember, when I was in sixth grade, my parents took in two foster children. The little girl was eight-years-old, the…
My firstborn son, Jack, married his high school sweetheart almost five years ago, the summer after the two of them graduated from college. In the months before the wedding, my son told me he’d enrolled the two of us in dance lessons at Arthur Murray Dance Studio. He wanted us to perform a choreographed mother/son…
Last spring, before retirement, I dashed out the door daily, driving to my windowless work space Once there, I loved reading and writing with seventh grade students, chatting with colleagues during hall change but on the way from my front door to my classroom door Envy rode my stiff shoulders like a green snake curled…
My favorite chair upholstery worn so thin it always felt like the cool side of the pillow My mother, sick of its old-world pattern, it’s lumpy seat cushion scrimped and saved for over a year to replace it only to have her four-year-old sob at its loss “Where will it go?” I wailed inconsolable I…
No better way to spend the day A book in my basket, sun on my back Riding a bike along the bay Even on days when clouds are gray Ocean waves, snow-white sand No better way to spend the day Up with the sun and on my way Pedaling round the ponds and shops Riding…
On Galley Street, I stood on Great Granny’s back porch, the Appalachian mountains peering over my shoulder as I watched the North Fork of the KY roil and churn brown waters foaming in their haste to round the bend Debris, Great Granny said, (pronouncing the “s”) floats down the middle when the river’s on the…
private words behind my back cut like knives a sharp attack you were my friend I shared through tears you turned and filled another’s ears what harm is there to spill the tea? it was still hot you scalded me.
This time last year, my husband and I were arriving at our happy place…Destin, Florida. It was my last spring break before retirement, and the two of us enjoyed every second of our beloved beach vacation. Most of our dinner discussions included lengthy reveries about how, very soon, our Destin trips would not be limited…
Porcelain Elvis posed the problem with his seventy-five dollar price tag, while 5-year-old Will had only seven dollars for souvenirs. Porcelain Elvis, safely behind glass in the gift shop. “He’s not an action figure,” we said. “I won’t leave without him,” Will warned. We begged, “Please don’t throw a fit…” We faced off with our…
On Mother’s Day, when I was six-years-old, I made my mother the loveliest bouquet. Fetching grown-up scissors from the junk drawer next to the fridge, I snuck away to the neighbor’s house while my mother put my baby sister down for a nap. Carefully, oh so carefully, I cut every flower from the neighbor’s flower…