It seems just yesterday I was a child.  Yet in a way, it seems like eons ago. Where did all the years go? What remains of all those years, especially my childhood? Surely I have more than the neatly-mounted pictures stored in scrapbooks tucked away on a bookshelf!  Occasionally, I visit my childhood home where […]

Spring washed in like the tide, advancing confidently with warmth and sunshine one day and retreating the next.  Some days the daffodils in Mother’s garden were bathed in lukewarm air that gently encouraged them, on others the wintry wind gusted, demanding a return to the bitterness of the months before.  But like the tide, spring […]

“Next stop…Springfield, Missouri,” hailed the conductor.  Minutes later, the train ground to a halt. Mother and I disembarked and found Granddad waiting for us at the platform adjacent to the train station.   “Welcome!” Granddad said, his face beaming. He grabbed our suitcases and whisked us away in his bronze-colored finned Chrysler, the perfect automobile for […]

Many of us are lucky to have people around us who understand or at least support our writing habits and dreams. Even with the best support, I sometimes feel like my writing is inconsequential in the face of so many pressing world problems. Do you ever feel like your writing doesn’t matter? Do ever think […]

In retrospect, I never quite understood Mother’s fascination with her decades-old red pantsuit.  It was her prized possession, her lifesaver, and her go-to garment elevated above all others in her wardrobe.  To me, it was a run-of-the-mill wash and wear outfit—nothing exceptional about it.  Yet, for some unknown reason, she was drawn to that outfit […]

When I was young, people asked: “Why don’t you have kids?” I usually muttered back something smart-alecky like: “I had one, but I forgot where I put it.”  When it was too late to conceive, people asked me that same question, but in the past tense with outrage: “How come you never had kids?!?” They […]