My oldest child was enamored with her dad from the very beginning. They had a relationship I wasn’t sure I’d ever permeate. Everyone knew about their special bond. When she was just learning to talk and interact, our friend had a game he played with her. Designed to challenge that relationship. He would ask ...
(This is the second part of a piece that originally appeared on kindredmom.com.) Part I can be found here. ************ After a week of what I thought was the flu, I finally made an appointment with my general practitioner. I will never forget my doctor’s words as he prepared to read the ...
This week I am preparing for a speaking event and next week I will be at the Cleveland Clinic for a heart check. So I am taking this opportunity to post a piece that was selected and originally appeared on the Kindred Mom website a few weeks ago. It tells the story of ...
Tomorrow is May 1: May Day, my sister’s birthday, my youngest daughter’s birthday. May also brings the National Day of Prayer and, outside of the last day of school, the best occasion: Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day always brings a flood of memories to us empty-nesting moms. We can still remember every detail of each ...
I fumbled for my bag and squeezed toward the doors, then exited the stuffed bus. The T, Boston’s public transit system, was overwhelmed this day. Too many of us clueless, anxious visitors trying to navigate a tricky system of lines and stops. But my husband left the Airbnb six hours earlier, so I was going ...
I am head over heels for my husband. He has been my rock and my partner and I am grateful every day that we chose each other all those years ago. When we married, that decision was a tipping point in my life. It set events into motion that have made my days on ...
Recently, while I was visiting my daddy in the small hospital in my hometown, I noticed the names of the longer-term patients posted outside their hospital room doors. These patients were more than a room number; they had names. I thought about how caring that was, to make patients feel more at home. Reading the ...
When we were growing up on the farm, for reasons too complicated and too political for my six-year-old mind, the school bus picked us up and dropped us off a half mile from our home at the intersection of four wheat fields. Usually Mom drove us up to the corner a tad early, because ...
I had a feeling in my gut that we shouldn’t have been playing with a ball in that room. Grandma Steinbacher’s fancy living room was not a place for rough-housing with its uncomfortable furniture and crystal chandelier. I was sure, although the rest of their farmhouse looked a lot like mine, this is where ...
“Don’t forget to check on me!” Every night my four-year-old daughter would stand up in her bed, open the door, and stick her piggy-tailed head into the evening hallway with this not-so-gentle reminder. “Checking” was more than being tucked in. We did that first. Hours later, she expected us to open her creaky door ...
