On November arriving too fast, a surprise Halloween conversion, a fire with my mom, Skye McAlpine’s Christmas Companion, and autumn in Scotland It is November. How is it November? It feels like yesterday we were singing Auld Lang Syne, and now here we are with Thanksgiving around the corner, Christmas right behind it, and New…
On grief, a stepfather’s belongings, a posting calendar that suddenly feels small, and the cool air of fall. It has been a little over six weeks since Gary, my step-father died, and I am still feeling adrift after loss in a way I did not expect. Back in August I thought the unmoored feeling belonged…
On legacy, love, and the generational wealth that cannot be put in a will. I have been thinking about inheritance lately. Not in the way most people mean the word. When most of us hear “inheritance,” we think of something tangible. Money. A will. The contents of a house, divided and distributed. And yes, that…
Yesterday morning the call came. It’s time. My mom jumped from bed and raced to the hospital. My sister was already there. And then, Gary being Gary, he stayed. Perhaps he still had unfinished business. Perhaps there were people he wanted to see one more time. Whatever the reason, all day long friends and family…
There will be no book this week, no outfit, no movie, no walk report. Not today. I am writing this with a broken heart. I told you last week that my stepfather had gone into hospice. The doctors were quick to say it is not like the hospice of old, not the kind where the…
A letter to every woman holding someone else’s world together I have been watching the women in my life lately. Not in a casual way. In the way you watch someone when you realize they have stopped sitting down. My mother is caring for my stepfather. My sister is caring for her husband, who has…
A few things I wish someone had handed me, and what I am telling them now There is a particular kind of pride that fills your whole chest. Not loud. Quiet, the way it settles in before you even know it is there. I will feel it twice this spring. My grandson crossing one threshold,…
Good morning! I am sorry that I have not posted in a few days but I have just returned from a week in the “heartland of America”, visiting my husbands family and celebrating my mother in laws 90th birthday, which coincidentally is today. Available here I had originally planned on posting as I usually do…
Good morning! Are you surviving the heat? I would like not to be a whiny complainer but I’m hot and tired of being hot tired and sticky. Ok, enough of that and on to better things. Later this month I will be attending my family reunion on my mother’s side and it has had me…
Recently, I wrote recently about my in-laws and their accumulated treasures. What I did not discuss is my family’s recent health situation. My in-laws are wonderful people, stubborn as old goats , but wonderful never the less and aging fast. They are each others second spouses, as as their previous ones passed away. Each have…
I have been thinking a lot lately about stuff and the more I think about it the more I realize that less really is more. More stuff does not really make your life richer, or more fulfilled and in fact it weighs you down and begins to be a burden especially as you age. I…
I cannot believe that Summer is almost over. Don’t get me wrong, with the almost unbearable heat and humidity this year I will not be sad to see the end of it. Image Here I am however a little down that my schedule this year did not allow me to go “home” to the Midwest….
