What’s in a Name?

Lo’s vocabulary is growing daily and each day says something cute and funny. My daughter-in-law already laments that she will not remember all Lo's gems and wishes that she had written them down. I accept this responsibility and agree that Lo’s growing vocabulary is certainly worth remembering. She adds new words daily and can now …

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Joan

This is the story of Joan, also know as Hannie. Joan was my husband’s mother. I never met her and there are few people alive who remember her. She is one of Lo’s great grandmothers and, for that reason among many, deserves to be remembered. Unlike Lo’s great-great grandmother Dorothy who I remember vividly, I …

The Willinghams

My family moved from California to a small town in NH when I was 14. While it was hell for me, it was good news for the young families of town. Our family brought three daughters thus populating the babysitting pool for many years to come. Word of mouth spread from our Aunt and Uncle …

Summer’s End

I barely had time to put away the beach chairs and I am suddenly making soup and wearing slippers. I realize this happens every year, but this recent week of cool weather is more abrupt this year and I am feeling more nostalgic. I think I know why. We spent last week at the beach …

Batting Average

There is much to recommend an older home. Our 1870’s New England frame house’s period features – the tin ceiling, the copper doorknobs, the wide pine floors – charmed us when we purchased it in 1986. But come summertime, the risks of an old home may outweigh the rewards. Once per year (and one desperate …

Kathy

She was just the roommate I needed. So determined was I to leave it all behind – my childhood, my rural home state, my teenage resentment with the conventionality of my high school and my narrow life– that I had applied and been accepted into a college I knew nothing about but for an offhand …

Housekeeping

Cleaning my mother's house. Cleaning my own house. This week, these parallel activities have me musing about the nature of housework.  I am a good-enough-for-government-work cleaner. The basics get done, and a little less frequently, I delve deeper, noticing and eradicating the toothpaste splash on the bathroom wall and the cobwebs clinging to the bulls-eye …

What is forgotten is also remembered

The muscle memory of taking care of babies thankfully returns when you are blessed with a grandchild. Whether it is the gentle scraping of her chin with the baby spoon in order to push the overflow blob of puréed spinach back in the mouth or the instant of relief when her face reappears after popping …