A guy sitting next to me in a college class said: “I’m going to audition for a campus play, let’s go!” The new me said: “Sure. Sounds like fun!” The old, too-cool-for-high-school me would have come up with a dozen fictional excuses. (Acting galore in life, not on stage.) I auditioned, was cast and rehearsed. […]

It was on my bucket list – but could I do it? I did know that I couldn’t imagine anything more thrilling than jumping out of a plane into the great blue beyond. So, one evening after I’d had a glass of wine, I opened the offer in my inbox. Before I could rethink it […]

“Let’s go!” my dad said as he put the car in gear and rolled down my grandmother’s driveway. “This will be a great adventure.” My mom watched my grandmother wave goodbye from the lace-curtained window. We did not want to leave Mémère’s home. It was warm and loving. We had been living with her for […]

Do you know any teenage girl who wants to ask her mother for advice? I have known a few, but I was not one of them. I was a private person. It was difficult to open myself up to people my own age. Why would I ask my mother anything about clothes, friendships, boys (you’ve […]

Some time after my mom died, I received a wonderful present from my cousin Linda, daughter of one of my mom’s younger sisters. It may have been a phone call, or a conversation during one of my visits to my home state in the Midwest; I can’t recall. Her gift of words about my mom […]

It seemed like a “forever ride” for a boy of 4 or 5 whenever we struck out for Starks. Of course, this was decades prior to the transformation of Harry Brown’s farm into an infamous marijuana party place. Back then it was just another of the landmarks meaning we had almost arrived at Grandpa’s and […]

“Mom, do I have to wear my boots today?” When I used to ask Mom that question 50 years ago, she knew what a big pain it was to put them on. They really were galoshes, and if they were the least bit tight, we had to sit down on the floor and pull them […]

It was January 2000. Sister Deb and I were visiting our parents. The Saturday morning ritual was, butts in the car at 7:30 to go out to breakfast. Lollygaggers were left behind to eat cold cereal. It was our parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Months earlier, we had asked Dad what he thought of a party […]

It was the late spring of 1975 and I was 19 years old, wearing pink hot pants and a halter top. I was a member of a USO tour in Southeast Asia. Ten of us from the University of Maine at Farmington were in Korea. Transport between military bases was by helicopter. One day, we […]

After my husband, Mike, passed away, simple, everyday occurrences that at one time were easily taken care of caused me to feel insecure, frightened and sad. I sometimes felt a great deal of anger. There were moments when I wanted to go for a walk or a drive, and keep going and never look back. […]