my fingers slipped or maybe my focus suddenly surprised by my own empty hand glass met granite showering sharp stars minuscule in their menacing raining into the open dishwasher sprinkling the baby’s bottles glittering clean spoons landing like clear dust on the bottoms of cereal bowls one sandy grain leaping a remarkable distance reaching a…
Our yellow house perched at the corner of Spring and Pear, a bright finch in our tangled nest of a yard. Out back, a stubby hill tumbled then splashed into the spring on Spring Street. Cool, shielded by crumbling stone magical burbling. I was 8-years-old, with 50 cents for two goldfish, carried home in a…
During the summer of 1980, my dad and his brother, Uncle Ronnie, pooled their funds to buy a used blue go-kart for my sister and me to share with our three cousins, Steven, Angie, and Jason. Papaw made room in the garage for us to store the go-kart when we were off at our own…
Whenever we played Duck, Duck, Goose on the playground when I was a child, I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and prayed the tapper would declare me a “duck” instead of a “goose.” Though I was a pretty fast runner (when no one was watching), I was much too self-conscious to run quickly enough to…
Twenty-five years ago, my husband and I moved with our two small sons (a two-year-old and a newborn) to a neighboring county in order to live in the school district where we were both teachers. I insisted that our new home be within walking distance of a grocery store. It seemed like a strange prerequisite…
When I awoke from surgery and groggily asked the time, the nurse explained to me that the surgery had taken three hours instead of the hour and a half the doctor had originally anticipated. Apparently, despite the fact that my lab work showed no signs of infection, my gallbladder was “acutely inflamed.” Getting the swollen…
I’m an early riser, even after retirement; so when the surgeon’s office called me earlier in the week and told me I needed to arrive at the hospital at 6:00 AM for gallbladder surgery, I was relieved. My surgery was the first of the day. I prayed the surgeon would also be a morning person….
Miniature Schnauzers are alarm sounders, ball fetchers, and squirrel chasers; but my 12-and-a-half-year-old Miniature Schnauzer, Jersey, is also a nurse. Whenever I’m feeling sick or sad, she snuggles as close as she can, comforting me with frequent soulful glances. Jersey loves to make eye contact. Now that she’s older and can’t leap on and off…
Last weekend, my son was out of town for an annual ski trip with college friends; but my daughter-in-law, her mother, and one of her two sisters invited me to come with them to take my 7-month-old granddaughter for a photo shoot with the Easter Bunny. All of us, my husband and I, my son…
The dollhouse my father and grandfather built for me has been empty for many years, virtually abandoned on a storage room shelf, wedged between trick-or-treat jack-o-lanterns and a decoupaged shoebox made to hold valentines. My entire family has heard my solemn promise over the years that I was going to repair and decorate the dollhouse…