My sister is looking back at our lives in the 40s and 50s and recalling incidents, family stories, and various memories she is putting to paper. The exercise has been a poke in my remembrance ribs, allowing me to contemplate those first 18 years of my life. My journey started 78 years ago, she joined… Continue reading The Most Important Year?
Today is my birthday and my watch was the first to send me a Happy Birthday message. I expect to get phone calls from my sister, from the kids, from some friends, and probably a lot of Happy Birthday wishes from people known and unknown on Facebook. I’ll be delighted to hear from all of… Continue reading A Cupcake and a Candle
‘I’ll beat you’ I hollered as we raced to the edge of the lake and powered our way toward a floating dock filled with youngsters wearing swimming attire popular in the late 1940’s. The floating dock that inspired many swimming competitions as a kid. Whose hand touched first was never the point. It was the challenge… Continue reading Weekly Prompts: Parks
Stress comes in a multitude of colors, situations, shapes, boxes, and people, and I’ve had 3 weeks of all of them. My days and nights have been cram packed with changes and adjustments creating upheaval in my life: Bidding farewell to my home of 15 years, and my community of 24 years. Emptying out my… Continue reading Cleaning Memory Closets
The aroma of fresh-cut grass wafted up the incline, melding into the afternoon heat. Competing scents swirled around me, blending then separating. From my left, I inhaled the crispness of the damp lawn. Drifting from my right was the delicious odor of homemade bread hot from my grandmother’s oven. July was filled with unique smells,… Continue reading Summer Scents and Memories
Dropping out of college was not an option, until now. Gritting my teeth, I repeated my refusal like a mantra: “No Mother, I won’t quit school,” I declared in my most forceful 20-year-old voice. In five months, I would grab a sheet of parchment from the hand of an unknown man, and stride off the… Continue reading The Power of No
M for Memories April 14 When are our memories activated? At the age of 6 did I remember a particular incident from last week or last year? Maybe when I was 14 I recalled thinking I would see cowboys when our family moved to Texas two years earlier. Or at 30 the memory of dancing… Continue reading A2Z April Challenge M and N
I thought I was losing my mind (which isn’t the first time), because I was seen somewhere I hadn’t been. Or, I didn’t think I had been there, but maybe I had since a friend was so adamant about my presence. In fact, she had a picture of me socializing with other attendees and recalled… Continue reading Who Was That Unmasked Woman?
Is who we were who we are today? I ran across a scrap book I assembled several years ago showing my life ‘before’ today. I lived in a different town, had different friends, had a different career, looked different. But, am I different than I was? I first asked this question two years ago when… Continue reading Who We Were Or Who We Are?
Valentine’s Day 2016 has come, and slipped by. No emotional upheavals, no bursts of tears, just memories that make my heart sing. You see, it was 29 years ago yesterday that we were married, starting a life changing journey that marched us through ups, downs, laughs, tears, joy, sadness, life and then death. As was your typical… Continue reading The Day After
that little voice 