Today is the birthday of my beloved nephew, Jim Agutter, my sister Leslie’s son. Jim is one of my favorite people in the world and, because I’ve known him since I was fifteen (when I was changing his diapers as a newborn), he is also one of my longstanding buddies. Luckily, he and my husband…

Ten years ago, my sister-in-law Sandra Adams Leatherwood died on this day.  Here are the words I spoke at her funeral. These seem fitting for today. *** My name is Len Leatherwood and I am Sandra’s sister-in-law. My nieces requested I say a few words about their mother today. Sandra had a quality that is…

Here is a photo of our more traditional Thanksgiving celebration on the actual day of Thanksgiving (Our orange grove celebration is always on the Friday after TG). We were invited to join Liz’s husband Ron’s family (the Bettys) at their lovely home for wonderful food and camaraderie. In this photo below are Ron’s parents, Ron’s…

The teakettle bubbled on the stove, sending up a stream of white mist into the air of the monastery kitchen. Brother Tobias yawned as he reached over to turn off the gas burner. The chanting voices of his Benedictine brothers wafted in through the open window from the nearby chapel where they were gathered for…

I remember exactly where I was when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. I was ten years old and was a student at Bailey Inglish Elementary School in Bonham, Texas, which is 70 miles from Dallas. I can’t remember exactly how we received the news, though I think it was over the loud-speaker. That…

I am moving into a new phase in my life. It’s called the, “Oh, does it really matter?” phase, which is very far from where I have lived up until Covid when I zipped around in a mindset of “Okay, let’s do this!” This previous approach to life was accompanied by an impressive amount of…

We went tonight with our friend and priest Ian Elliott Davies to hear the Master Chorale perform Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil. It is 75 minutes long without an intermission. Everyone had to show their vaccination card and their photo ID. We all had to wear masks as well the entire time we were in Disney. Just…

I was ten years old the Thanksgiving my mother decided to cook. This wasn’t a good thing since she never cooked, but she decided that she didn’t want to order the usual ham for the main meal – turkey, after all, was what most people had for Thanksgiving – and she always gave our housekeeper…

Today, Rachael and I started our Thanksgiving cooking. We made Ray’s honey-sweetened cranberry sauce (recipe appeared in yesterday’s blog), cooked two pumpkins and pureed the pulp for pumpkin pies, and made a delectable gravy that is a family favorite from a recipe furnished by The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. The great thing about both the…