When my sister got a part time job in the Biology lab in her first year of college, she brought home literal frog legs which my mother cooked up for our dinner. You must understand that Mother grew up in the Great Depression. Waste not, want not. She could make a pot of soup out … Read more
A drive up and down through thick green foothills, twists and turns as the sun lowers. Orlean Market and Restaurant. Crabcakes. Reubens. Genuine hand cut French fries. Stillness of the coming evening fills the patio. From inside we hear the Bluegrass sounds of five, no six, guitars and one banjo. The music draws us in. … Read more
I’m in the Physical Therapy office waiting for my husband, who has misplaced his ever present coffee mug, the one that attaches to his hand everywhere he goes. Life is standing still as we both look for it – nothing can continue until we find it. Finally I spy it in the bathroom and emerge, … Read more
This girl, this curly redheaded girl, is often a rock in a stormy sea. She calmly crochets fantastic animals for her friends. I stare in awe. She is teaching me, no mean feat at my age, and I’m grateful. She plays rugby at her college, all 5 feet of her. A rough and tumble game, … Read more
Such a beautiful boy! A cuddler from the beginning. So many adventures we had. Remember romps at Robert Frost Farm? Picnics under Jimmy the apple tree, dancing in the wild October wind as the leaves tumbled down around us, playing Pooh Sticks on the bridge over Hyla Brook. Remember hikes into Massabesic, roasting hot dogs … Read more
You came into our lives as somewhat as a bonus baby for me, some 20 plus years after my own last baby. I felt like I had been given another chance at nurturing an infant. What a gift! It wasn’t long until you had enchanted us with those heartthrob blue eyes of yours and your … Read more
It was one of those delicious early summer days in southern Missouri. What a perfect day to get my kiddos outfitted with new sneakers for the summer. I remembered that the general store in a tiny nearby town was glutted with sneakers in all sizes and colors. No one seemed to know why, but there … Read more
The rumor of a strawberry moon spins me backward in time. 13 years old again and it’s strawberry season in the PNW. Every year when school lets out, or rather lets us out, my friends and I are herded onto a school bus and hauled out into the county to pick berries in the sprawling … Read more
Foxgloves, they are called, for some obscure reason lost in British history. Maybe it’s the glovelike shape of the delicate little petal that looks like it belongs on the head of some woodland nymph. Some flowers just enchant me; lilies of the valley with their other worldly fragrance, lilacs that hearken back to Walt Whitman’s … Read more
When we learned that you would soon make us grandparents, we were over the moon in anticipation. Then you came into our world, all 9 plus pounds of baby boy. Before we knew it, you were laughing, talking, walking. “Grandma” became “Goggie”. We don’t know why, but it stuck. The Christmas nutcrackers on Grammy’s mantle … Read more