Salty like hot dogs (and tears). Sweet like marmalade (and life).
Yesterday my father told me that he was have vision problems. “Everything is blurry,” he said, “and I feel like I’m seeing double.” My heart sank. A stroke — the word ran through my mind, a leering devil of a word that filled me… Continue Reading “Sights and Sounds”
Each member of the surgical team looped through the room. An introduction. Name and date of birth requested. The why-are-you-here question. My mother didn’t know the answers when I had sat in the same spot with her some years before. I helped. My father… Continue Reading “Surgery”
About a month ago, I received a curious piece of mail. When I opened the envelope, I found a folded-up piece of yellow construction paper. In red marker, the sender, Juliette, a little girl from our church in Greene, had drawn a heart, an… Continue Reading “The Gift of Giving”
Traveling is a weary business. Especially when traipsing across time zones. When you start in a rural area and end in a rural area, travel time is extended by the road time at either end. We left Cooperstown around 12:30 PM and arrived in… Continue Reading “Ominous Beginning — Part 2”
This was a picture I thought about posting yesterday. Same trip — to Greece and Macedonia — but the look is one I recognize from later years. As Alzheimer’s slowly took her from us, her face became less and less expressive. We could still coax a… Continue Reading “Wandering Words on Travel and Life”
One of my brothers attended Cornell — ever heard of it? While he was there, my uncle visited to adjudicate at the law school’s moot court competition. My brother snuck up to the bench where my uncle would be hearing the arguments and left a… Continue Reading “The Cookie Rule”
Even though they were very wise, the owls had a limited vocabulary. I often walk into the living room these days and find my father with the dictionary in his lap. He still does word puzzles — the daily Jumble and crossword — every day,… Continue Reading “V is for Vocabulary”
For a couple of years, my father kept saying, “I need one of those things,” and he would mimic someone holding a device in their hand and tapping on the screen. We tried to convince him that an iPad would work well for him… Continue Reading “New Use for an iPod”
I never know what I’m going to see in the parking lot at the local grocery store. In the village of Cooperstown, there is one — yes, only one — grocery store. I go there often. My father’s refrigerator is small, and we go… Continue Reading “In the Parking Lot”
Just my luck — I’m the daughter of a stubborn man. I looked out the window yesterday and this is what I saw. Old habits really do die hard. Aw, phooey.
