Considering my east-coast background, I should have been bored with this low key, unpretentious tea party. This was unlike any gal bash I had known. Where was the raucous laughter, the husband bashing, the competitive undercurrent, the off-color humor, the wine coolers, the gossip? It was my first day of school. I was in the right place.
It had burrowed deep. Pete could feel it lodged beneath his ribcage. It was dark and heavy and threatening. Sometimes it would claw its way up to his throat and he would begin to shake. It was hard not to run. His boy was sick. Only four years old and he was taking it like …
You know they want to help you. They really do. They went to school for a very long time. They worked hard and spent a lot of money. You are in awe of their accomplishments and expertise. They do things every day you know you could never do. They Know So Much. You are thankful …
Continue reading Making Medical Decisions
First babies take a long time, they say. I was counting on that. He built a fire in the grill pit beside our cabin, then came inside. He shoveled glowing coals from the woodstove into a steel bucket and placed them under our pickup to warm the engine oil. He watched for a while then …
Continue reading A Very Short Birth Story
She was headed north, alone, on the gravelly edge of a two-lane highway. Her feet were beginning to hurt but they kept their usual steady pace. For over an hour, no car passed from either direction and no houses appeared. In fact, the nearest town, such as it was, lay ten miles back, just beyond …
Continue reading A Short Walk on a Long Road
A fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen "Young woman embracing a thorn bush"Kay Rasmus Nielsen (March 12, 1886 – June 21, 1957)Denmark A mother sat by her little child; she was very sad, for she feared it would die. It was quite pale, and its little eyes were closed, and sometimes it drew a heavy deep …
Continue reading The Story of a Mother
I am very pleased and thankful that a revised version of my blog post "Four" (originally published October 3, 2016) has been included in the June 2021 “Gardens” issue of ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal. It is our first summer without him, an astonishingly beautiful day, and a Sunday, which makes it worse. I step …
Continue reading From a Secret Place
I was deep into a collection of short stories written by Anton Chekhov when I turned the page and was confronted with a story entitled Grief. I briefly considered skipping it, but I am so glad I didn't. Mr. Chekhov understands a bereaved parent's compelling need to talk about their loss. Every public domain site I …
Continue reading Anton Chekhov | Misery
You Can Trust Him 