This month a deluge of holiday gifts are returned to stores. It’s hard to give the perfect gift, and almost as hard to remember getting one. Yet Patricia Kachinsky of Milton still talks about what she received years ago. Back then she told her four young daughters, “I want a memory of something your father […]
I had my first Christmas in prison. No, not as an inmate. In 1998 I was a Bible study volunteer at Webster Correctional Institution, a low security prison for men in Cheshire, CT (since closed). That year we threw a Christmas party for the 9 inmates in our group. However, word got around and 50 […]
In the wake of terror and violence, a Facebook friend rallied against desensitization or surrendering to despair. But what else is there to feel? Paranoia? Revenge? Hatred? I needed another option. This is the season for love and goodwill, but headlines disconnected me from holiday cheer, such as writing Christmas cards. Then, I thought, why […]
On the beach 10-year-old Bella forms an “arena” in the sand. Lulu, age 7, runs over with a yellow pail of crabs. The two largest gladiators are placed on their backs in the arena, and I’m told, “The first one to turn over, wins. Go!” Claws scrambling, a sudden winner, shrieks and laughter from my […]
About 1965 was the last time I saw Jeannette. I was ten and she was 18. Now I’m 60 and only recently I’ve been searching for my half-sister. An obituary is a sad place to end. She died in 2012 at the age of 65. It was the same year when an intuitive itch came […]