It seemed like the perfect place for Mom and me to spend two nights in historic Salem, Massachusetts—a large yellow colonial house built in 1834, graceful and majestic. We had booked into the town’s inn, but there was an overflow, so we ended up staying in one of their annexes, this yellow house a […]
Some Christmases stay in our minds forever, no matter how old we get. My most memorable came in 1972 when I was fifteen. It was the first time I feared Christmas wouldn’t come…at least not in the way I’d always known. On December 20th, a huge storm pounded our little town in Connecticut. Electricity […]
Let’s face it. The thought of getting older is scary. Being in my sixties feels surreal, especially since I was thirty last week. But there’s one person that always inspires me, leading the way through the dense, thorny thicket of the later years. And that’s my 80-something year old mom, Marilyn. Here are 5 […]
I sit with hundreds of other mourners in a light-filled, stained-glass sanctuary. Maybe we’re all thinking the same thing — Susan was taken too soon and too suddenly. But as I listen to the service in that old Connecticut church, I realize six remarkable things… The people in our lives help shape certain eras — I […]
Sometimes an event happens that stops you in your tracks. It shakes and scares you, but gives a new perspective. This happened to me the day after New Year’s last year. My husband Randy and I had hosted our second annual New Year’s Day “Basement Jam.” This is a party for local musicians – – […]
We often hear dozens of opinions on Facebook. For those who don’t like it, Facebook’s intrusive. The sidebar “ad-stalking” gets weird. There’s more information overload in one day than our ancestors probably received in a year… if not their lifetime. So why am I addicted? There’s only one answer. Facebook is fun. It’s become […]
Many times you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I always knew I had a wonderful father. But now that it’s been almost a year since he’s passed, the full impact of what I’ve lost is sinking in. Here are 8 traits he had that I believe go into making a great […]
Some people don’t believe in aging. My grandmother was one of them. I realized this as I stood in the Hyannis Bus Station one afternoon in June of 1974. I was seventeen, had just graduated high school, and grateful my parents had agreed to let me stay with Nana for the summer. Five minutes passed, ten, […]
Where would we be without our friends? Let’s face it, as we grow older we need them more than ever. Yes, we love our spouses and family, but there’s something about a girlfriend that helps us see life differently. They open us up and change us for the better. Here are 8 kinds of friends […]
You think you know how you’ll feel, but you don’t. When someone close to you dies, sometimes you react differently than expected. When my father passed last Sunday, I was ready to feel one way. But surprisingly, five unexpected emotions tugged at me. Happiness for him – My 82 year-old father was released from an […]
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