I wrote this piece a few years back and it remains close to my heart. My mother died in the last week of January 2000. That day is as vivid to me now as it was then. I thought I’d share this story with you tonight since Mom is on my mind. On the day…
Category: Flash Memoir
A Letter to a Long-Dead Friend
I was thinking about your death the other day. About how you had been reluctant to let me know you had lung cancer, and then pretended you were getting better just before you died. I was disappointed that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth, or was it that you just couldn’t…
Flash Memoir: The Train
A train is a means of conveyance that moves on a track from one place to another. Passengers wait on a platform before departing for their destinations. I remember sitting with my mother in her hospital room as she was dying. This was December, 1999. I sat in the darkened room while she slept. I…
Repost: My Imaginary Friend, Tommy Wizzims
I told this story to some of the volunteers at the St. Thomas the Apostle Breakfast Club where we were feeding the homeless yesterday morning. Someone was saying she fell in love with a teenage boy when she was three. I had to tell her about Tommy Wizzims. Here is that story written a while…
Repost: A Lesson from the Past
This is a post that I wrote back in July of 2012. Somehow it speaks to me today. I hope it will speak to you as well. Len One of the toughest moments I have ever witnessed in my life is when many years ago a beloved priest of mine unexpectedly lost his daughter, Ruthie,…
Repost: Brother George’s Last Day
Fourteen years ago, my brother George passed away. He was 54 years old. George called on the evening of May 2nd, 2004 and told me that death was coming soon. My response: “Can you hold on until tomorrow? I’ll get there as fast as I can.” His response was, “I’ll try.” Thanks to my husband Ray,…
Repost: Visiting Sarah in Corpus Christi in 2011
I reread this post tonight and thought, “Hmmm. That’s worth sharing.” I like this post because of its specificity. At the end of it, I speculate whether I am boring people with this information. I can’t speak for anybody else, but I enjoyed reading this five years after I first wrote it. You can weigh…
Happy Birthday, Rachael!
Dear Rachael, Twenty-five years ago today I delivered all 7 pounds of you on a sleeping bag spread out on the floor of Daddy’s and my bedroom in our Victorian on Grand Avenue in Sherman, Texas. Daddy and Patricia – dressed in their matching green hospital sweats they’d managed to procure just for this occasion…
The Road to Normal
My husband said to me today, “Thank you for being so normal.” I replied, “Thank you back.” Not that we haven’t had our share of abnormal, which can be defined as having a need for major drama. There was a time when drama was a daily part of our life together. Fights, misunderstandings, hurt feelings….
Repost: Sharp Edges
We woke up early this morning – 6:30 or 7 – only to discover that our dog had chewed up my husband’s glasses. We found the lenses in many pieces, the earpieces twisted and chewed and we never located the nosepiece. Ray loves this dog more than most humans he knows, so after the shock…
20 Minutes a Day 