Suprise Me

Tradition! As a child I heard Yiddish spoken by my European-born grandparents and my first-generation American parents,  yet I never had the curiosity to learn to speak it myself. But my parents subscribed to New York’s Yiddish theatre company,  the Folksbiene,  and I’d go with them and follow the plays by reading the English supertitles.… Read More

Growing up Thanksgiving meant dinner with two parents five of us kids three grandparents one aunt one uncle one cousin one great uncle one great grandmother  laughing loving kissing hugging drinking thanking jabbering gobbling  spilling over, no distance between us.   Now comes Covid rising with masks and elbow bumps  six feet here six feet there sanitizer… Read More

Sold Out! I love theatre and go pretty regularly,  often with my fellow theatre-loving friend Babs.  And although we’re both pretty savvy about ordering tickets,  sometimes one or the other of us screws up,  and the last  time it was me.  Here’s the embarrassing story. For years Babs and I have shared a subscription to… Read More

She practiced Christianity as a religion of love, tolerance, and generosity. She never turned down someone who needed help and she was the most open-minded person I’ve ever known. Read More

2026 McGraw Leaving Manhattan recently on a wintry Friday afternoon we hit rush hour and my husband turned off the highway to avoid the heavy traffic.   We were taking a detour through local Bronx streets when I realized we were about to pass my old neighborhood,  and we decided to drive down my old… Read More

I had optimistic hopes about what retirement would be like, tempered with realism. Read More

I am living in a time warp, totally unmoored from any sense of day or even month. Read More

I first wrote this story for the prompt “Finding Your Tribe” on March 14, 2020, just before the start of the pandemic, and added an addendum as Massachusetts shut down the next week, then came back last year. Our conductor, Rick Travers, starts every season (I joined this chorus 20 years ago) by saying the… Read More

I didn’t much give a damn for wearing glasses. Read More

It’s hard to explain to my grandkids what honesty looks like. And I certainly can’t tell them that cheaters never prosper. Read More