11 September 2014 0 Comments

The Window

When I awoke on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I had no reason to feel anything other than unbridled hopefulness. My family was well, including my two toy poodles and five cats. Our daughter had begun her own life, having moved into a brand new apartment with a friend. Everything in our lives moved ahead, often […]

21 July 2014 4 Comments

The Confessional

Perhaps I need to make a public declaration so that I can come fully back into the light of a literary life. Maybe I should finally openly admit that I haven’t written properly in a year. That, after my sister passed away in 2012, my writing died a slow death. Maybe it happened because there […]

12 September 2011 0 Comments

Remembering. Recalibrating. Rebuilding.

On that day ten years ago, I looked up at the breathtakingly beautiful clear azure blue sky before I walked into my office building in Columbus, Ohio, and felt that everything was right. Things had started going well for me at work and with my family. For the first time in a long time, my […]

4 August 2011 3 Comments

A Happy Birthday

By the time I held newborn Carter in my arms, it was all over. He’d won my heart. But getting there was quite a journey. All I could think about when I saw the photo of my daughter and son-in-law holding a positive pregnancy test was how I was going to look sitting in a […]

17 June 2011 0 Comments

Eyes On the Future

I hold my ten-month-old grandson, Carter, in my arms as we stand by the door waving good-bye to his parents for the evening. I’m not strong and find Carter so heavy that I can hardly hold him. Still, I manage to let loose with one hand and wave. I don’t much like doing it. I […]

12 May 2011 4 Comments

Morning Ritual

It starts first thing in the morning, even before the sun wakes. I wish I could adequately convey how it sounds. As I write, I imagine that it’s a mix between a trumpet’s blare and a baby’s coo. It’s my cat, Bud, making his special cry for milk. He cries so hard and so long […]