When Washington State brought the country’s first case of novel Coronavirus to the US, we had no idea what had begun. While the sudden deaths of loved and aged family members was a shock, the nursing home tragedy was still an hour and a half away from where I live. Things moved quickly, tho’. Suddenly the virus was way too close to home and there … Continue reading Naming our Losses {#lifeinthetimeofcorona}
I am from doughboy pools and homemade Barbie houses from Huffy bikes and Helms Bakery donuts. I am from three sisters to a room and broad green bermuda lawns. I am from bright sandy beaches and weeping willows whose drooping green sheltered me from California’s sun. I am from Coppertone and Sun-In from Helen and Wes and John. I am from belting out a tune … Continue reading I am From {a #poem}
I wanted to title this “The Night We Ate Tacos & Nobody Got Hurt.” Read on to find out why.
Family gatherings around life events are often joyous, emotional occasions; wedding preparations definitely take the cake when it comes to lots of Big Feelings. Mix the mother of the groom, the father of the bride, siblings, relatives—shirt-tail or otherwise—and there is sure to be no shortage of rough edges on the Big Day. Everyone involved has an investment in the couples’ happiness. Or at least an opinion, (“They paid HOW much for the honeymoon?!”)
Pressure for the event to be Pinterest ®perfect is not helped by the fact that those who are invited into the picture are often strangers. The bride and groom know and love each of their friends, but rarely do all the friends and relatives know or necessarily love each other. Even when they’re in the same family.
My nephew was married six summers ago. To celebrate the occasion of her only child, my sister invited my other siblings (there are five of us altogether) and respective spouses to stay with her during Wedding Week. She has a large home in Southern California and we had all visited one time or another, but never all at the same time; this would be one great sleep over.
Mornings and evenings were chillaxing times over meals, telling the same old jokes, teasing each other the way only family can do. There was an ease about the early morning coffee quiet and comfortable dinner table conversations. We enjoyed late nights on the patio listening to a backdrop of crickets or inside listening to the electronic ‘plink’ of Words with Friends (on our separate devices while sitting in the same room. Of course.
Part of the celebrations prior to the big day was a luncheon my sister planned the day before W’s wedding. It would a sort of an ice-breaker/get-to-know-each-other time with the groom, his Best Man from college in Texas, and…her ex-husband. This could a very tricky situation. Continue reading “What Forgiveness Tastes Like”
I’d sure like a cup of coffee. The grounds go in the top, but where? And here is the glass pitcher 6 cups full of water but I don’t remember where to pour it. My mind is like a leaky bucket, a sad sieve that saves less and less these days, an empty, worn-out basket. If I could stop up the holes, plug the places … Continue reading To Be 94 {a #poem}
My brothers are strumming their guitars in my sister’s living room and I’m thinking of the miracle of it all, how our mother loved to sing and each of these men taught themselves to play beautiful music because of that gift and their love for words and song. The miracle is I’m here to witness it, when I think of our collective pasts, the five … Continue reading Songs/Life
Today I travel to Southern California for the wedding of the decade. Well, for my family, it’s the wedding of the decade. I am the oldest of 5 children and the last time my brothers and sisters and I were together with our spouses was 1999. My sister L’s only son is being married and as happens on occasions like this, people … Continue reading Journeying–The Romance of the Daily