My sister and I have just completed a project that has been such fun. We have jointly written a collage of memories of growing up in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle during the 1940s and 1950s. Interest in this memoir will be limited to perhaps only to our children and cousins, but we found such… Continue reading Remembering
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
Father’s Day and all is quiet. That tells me my father is no longer cracking jokes, being silly and enjoying life. Sam Williams died 15 years ago. He fell, broke his hip, and when they started to take him to surgery, the doctors discovered he had pneumonia. He died about 36 hours later. He was… Continue reading An Imperfect Perfect Father
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood at Pexels.com See more 280 word responses to this week’s Twittering Tales photo prompt at https://katmyrman.com/2019/04/30/twittering-tales-134-30-april-2019/ Memories remain. Your letters didn’t lessen the pain of your absence, nor alleviate my longing. I grew lost in grief, and elevated in desire. I hope you received my letters about Bernard. He was… Continue reading Memories Remain
One of my favorite bloggers, who writes honestly and insightfully about aging, recently noted we glorify older people who are active, those who at 70 or 80 are romping around like 40 year olds. As a society we want old folks to not act like ‘old folks’, but instead run, dive, explore, walk, bike, swim,… Continue reading Act Your Age
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
that little voice 