On Sunday, I will be serving as the guest editor for the week over at SheWrites.com, a blog with over 19,000 members (mostly women, but some men), who are excited about writing. I hope you will come over and visit this week. Membership is free and I could use the support! We will be covering…
Category: Flash Memoir
Sarah’s Birth Story or How Not to Have a Baby at Home…
Today is my oldest girl’s 30th birthday and in the spirit of tradition, it’s time for Sarah’s birth story. I was 29 when Sarah was born, which means that I was in the height of our antique dealing life, jumping on and off the back of our pickup as we loaded for Canton Trades Days,…
Revisited Prompt: Edward Weston Photo: Wrecked Model T
The car looked like a Model T, or what was left of it. It was more rightly, the carcass of a Model T with no wheels or tires, no engine, no seats. Only the body of the old car, rusted, bent, and disheveled, like an old woman with too many miles and too much booze. …
Flash Memoir: Where the Love Was
I didn’t want to go to kindergarten when it was time for me to go. All my friends were going to Humpty Dumpty Play School, but I hated it. I much preferred to stay at home and play by myself or with baby Sam in our room, near Mama. I played school on my own,…
Memoir Prompt: Memories of My Dad
Yesterday was my father’s birthday. Here is a piece I wrote about him a while back, but still rings true for me. A window into my world with him: “Have I told you today how much I love you?” This was a question my father asked me every day I was growing up. “I love…
Flash Essay Prompt: Leonard Cohen, Brother George, and Recovery
As Leonard Cohen writes in his song, Anthem: Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There’s a crack – a crack – in everything That’s how the light gets in. I just read a fellow blogger’s heartfelt account of the bumps on her road to recovery from alcohol abuse. She spoke…
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 this 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…
The Secret of How to Help A Baby Go to Sleep
Tomorrow is my daughter Elizabeth’s 26th birthday. She is coming over so we can celebrate. Waffles and turkey bacon are on the menu for brunch, then we have a few movies to watch before having the “official’ birthday meal, which will be of her choosing. It is a tradition in our family that we talk…
Prompt: The Gift of a Quilt
I am giving each of my three daughters a quilt as a keepsake. These are not quilts made by me with fabric from their Easter dresses or from their first days of school. How I wish I had been so forward thinking that I had saved those favorite dresses and tops for that purpose! No,…
To George on What Would Have Been His 62nd Birthday
Today is my brother George’s birthday. My brother who died eight years ago. My brother who was three years older than me and was my closest friend from birth. The first person I adored with all of my heart. When I was little he would ask me to go upstairs and get his shoes and…
20 Minutes a Day 