Most 25-year-olds don’t have to triple check their heart rate during spin class. Most 25-year-olds don’t get hooked up to a heart monitor machine and run on a treadmill until they physically have to stop. Most 25-year-olds don’t have a scar running down the length of their chest. But I guess I’m not like most […]
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Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Jody Rich, Waterville: Healing is a new beginning
Radiation saved my life. No doubt about it. People ask if I feel differently; if I view the world with a new perspective. No, not really. The internal and external radiation burn I was left with remind me several times daily that I am not done with my illness. Seven years later, internal processes that […]
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J. Lauren Sangster, Portland: A new start with an old hat
After a loved one passes away, we sometimes hold off doing certain things. We need to wait until the time is right to figure out exactly what it is we need to do to feel better. I sobbed uncontrollably the first time I dared to pick up Mike’s favorite summer hat and smell the inside […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Op-Eds, Opinion
Annunziata Graziano, Brunswick: The words that suddenly put everything into perspective
Keep your eye on the ball. Don’t quit your day job. Eat dessert first (a personal favorite). You can’t take it with you. Never bite off more than you can chew. The best things happen when you stop waiting for them to happen. Over the course of 25 years, I’ve heard plenty of advice. My […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Cheryl A. Stringer, New Gloucester: I’ll take that under advisement, Mom
“I am prepared to offer you three camels, 50 goats, and 100 sheep for your daughter.” That was how my new fiancé chose to break the news of our engagement to my parents. My dad laughed in appreciation of the joke. Mom managed a wan smile. It was mid-December. Ed and I had met that […]
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Kay Wheeler, Raymond: Words to live by, right off a donkey’s back
When I was a youngster, back around 1947, we lived on the outskirts of town. It was nice. We had a big open field, a big grassy yard, a garden, chickens, two dogs, two cats and two other animals. My grandmother called them “burros,” my mom called them “donkeys” and my dad called them another […]
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Jody Rich, Waterville: Don’t be afraid to try
“Go! Try it! You can always come home.” I can’t count how many times my mother said that to me. For years, she wanted me to become an airline attendant or the next Julie on “The Love Boat.” She wanted me footloose – meeting people, eating great food and staying excited and interested. When I […]
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John E. Lawrence, Winslow: Thank Bell for the phone
When I was a kid in the 1950s and ’60s, a phone call was usually for something important, as in a death in the family or a medical emergency. Since my mother was the youngest of 12, we received many of the former. As time went on, phone calls became more frequent — and not […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Op-Eds, Opinion
Michelle Shores, Waterville: Dropped call
Years ago, long before we had cellphones, back when we were still using that green rotary dial phone mounted to the wall in our 1970s kitchen, I remember the day I hung up on my mother. We were talking on the phone, me the know-it-all teenager, Mom the working mother trying to do it all. […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Op-Eds, Opinion
Annunziata Graziano, Brunswick: The hardest secret I’ve ever kept
A phone call can change a life. In this case, it changed multiple lives (four, to be exact). Growing up, I never felt like an only child. I was always surrounded by friends, but I craved the sibling bonds that I witnessed in the lives of my friends. After months and months of adoption parties […]