Sep 5
GOOD FUNERALS
Funerals were forbidden when I was growing up. They were mysterious events my parents attended with other adults. My first introduction...
Aug 21
A Salute to Mom’s Chocolate Cake on her Birthday
Finally reproduced her cake in 2015 A few months after my mother died, I decided to bake her chocolate cake from scratch. My...
Jun 12
Wedding Ceremony Regrets
I recently saw a Facebook post that posed the question “What is One Thing You Wish You Could Change About Your Wedding?” I was a young...
Feb 29
What’s Today’s Date?
During a recent hospitalization, someone came into my room and asked me that. Without my iPhone close at hand, I panicked for a second....
Dec 19, 2023
Seated Around the Table Part Three — My Kids and Grandkids
We opened the wall In 1624, John Donne wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself.” Of course, he was writing about the...
Nov 22, 2023
60 Years Ago — November 22, 1963
It is my first “where were you when this happened” memory. On November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I was...
Nov 2, 2023
Seated Around the Table Part Two: My Children’s Generation
Thanksgiving 1989 My children would probably say that I am a lot like my mother (pictured above). By the time they were old enough to...
Oct 10, 2023
Seated Around the Table
Part One: My Childhood At my writers’ group, we talked about a challenge suggested by Nina Raskin: Think about who sat at your table from...
Sep 13, 2023
My Hair-Raising Journey
This memoir is dedicated to my writing group I was born with black hair. Unlike my beloved cousin Annette, my mother didn’t have to cover...
Dec 17, 2019
I’m a Sucker for The Nutcracker
Nutcracker on Ice 1993 Published in ChicagoNow, December 17, 2019 Nothing says holidays for me better than hearing music from The...