Suprise Me

In first grade, I started ballet lessons.  Two sisters – Bernice and Therese – taught in the old craftsman-style home they shared.  Two adjoining front rooms were converted into one large studio, with a barre along one wall, carefully polished floors, and an old phonograph in a corner.  Bernice and Therese seemed about a hundred… Read More

The Parents Group When our son was born in New York Hospital I was asked if we’d like to attend The First Year of Life,  a series of quarterly lectures by Lee Salk,  the renown child psychologist.  Of course we signed up and over the following year we attended four wonderful lectures held in a… Read More

The red cubes glow like fox eyes. Read More

I am booked on a flight on PSA, called "The World's Friendliest Airline," with smiles painted on the front of all their planes. Read More

Look for the Helpers – for Laurie My sister Laurie spent the last two years of her life in a Rockville, MD nursing home –  at 59 she may have been the youngest patient there.  I was Laurie’s medical  decision-maker then and eventually her court-appointed legal guardian. Laurie was strikingly beautiful, her looks and her… Read More

I’ve never been big on making resolutions because I know I will never keep them. But this prompt asks me to ponder the topic. Thus, in 2022, I resolve to … Stay sane Be healthy Keep my anxiety under control Stop making “suggestions” to my middle-aged kids See friends and family in person when it’s… Read More

I’m 66, so why do I still have so many vivid memories of Kindergarten? I remember things like wetting my pants because I was too afraid to leave my seat without permission. I remember a couple sympathetic room mothers offering me a Halloween costume since my mom hadn’t arranged for one. Being proud, stubborn and… Read More

Thomas Wolfe wrote You Can’t Go Home Again. What are the frustrations if you try? Read More

As kids, we started thinking about the next Halloween on November first. Over the next several months, ideas were floated, refined, discarded, and resurrected. These were the most important decisions a kid could make in those days. As a parent, I had to wait patiently while my kids repeated this cycle of indecision, hoping that… Read More

My husband only occasionally engaged in DIY projects with me “supervising,” but we did live for 45 years in a house built in 1911. And we loved our old house, despite its frequent need for repairs. Read More