In 2011, on a brutally hot August morning, my eighty-seven-year-old mother and I arrived at Florida’s West Palm Beach airport for her final flight to New York. On arrival, two good-natured stewards seated mom in a wheelchair and escorted us …
What does it say about me that, when someone steals my identity, I’m offended if they use it to shop at a dollar store? I have nothing against dollar stores per se. But would it kill them to go to …
When I think about my death, which happens more frequently than it used to, I consider my quirky, beautiful objects. I love my things, not as a consumer and not exactly as a collector; everything in my home I either …
My grandmother, my mother’s mother, sacrificed her teens and twenties to taking care of her father. Since her mother predeceased her and as the oldest girl, my grandmother took on the task of tending to her father who had a …
We often spent weekends with Auntie Anne, my mother’s older sister, and Uncle Paul at their Long Island two-bedroom suburban home in North Babylon, out in Suffolk County. To get there the five of us piled into my dad’s two-tone …
No matter how many years I’d been teaching, the first day of class was always the same—nerve-wracking. Did I remember all my handouts? Had I made enough copies? Did I remember to bring the roster, the art samples, the textbook? …
A slight breeze blew out toward the grandstands. I stared in toward home plate and picked up the catcher’s sign. I raised my right arm, hardball in my hand, and eyed the batter. The count was three balls, two strikes, …
Marty is tearing along Elida Road in his Buccaneer Red Trans Am. We take a side road and pick up always-late Terry, wrinkled white uniform open at the chest, purple belt trailing behind him as he runs barefoot down the …
There, lying next to the Visa/Master Card sign was what looked like a 2-carat diamond. Or a nice piece of glass.
I put down my usual turkey sandwich, mid chew, and examined the sparkly object with the dental magnification glasses …
My daughter has become a front line worker. She’s an OT (occupational therapist) at a rehab facility. Getting folks back on their feet after an injury or hospitalization, she teaches them to regain the old skills of dressing, feeding and …