Life happens in the family room. It is often the scene of laughter and joy and celebrations with and for our family on birthdays, Thanksgivings, Christmases, and other get-togethers. Within the room is the entry to the broom closet and pantry, the door to which has served through the years as a never-to-be-painted-over record of […]
Letter: Death Is Not Too Late for Those Left Behind
“You Decorated My Life” (thank you Cheryl Pine for sending this to me), was Bob Morrison’s Grammy-winning song which began as a poem written by Debbie Hupp, a love song which became a No. 1 hit when recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers in 1979. The lyrics describe what happens when the love of […]
Letter: I Married the Farmer’s Daughter
Boxes of tulip bulbs arrived yesterday. Soon they will be planted in my wife’s memory. Beauty will abound next spring, appropriately enough as it was the first day of spring this year that she succumbed to a long, long battle with cancer. She was Dutch. Wooden clogs hang on the door. A windmill her father […]
Letter: I Saw You Holding Hands Today
I’ve seen them emerge from the Marriage Licensing office, prized manilla envelope in one hand, a greater by far precious possession gripped in the other. I’ve seen them at the fair. Especially sweet was an elderly couple, strawberry scone in one hand, the other hand clasped in that of their loved one, smiling, strolling toward […]
Letter: Solo through the Cemetery
We’ve been to the mountain, the bug, my wife, and me. There on the subalpine slopes we wandered, drinking in the beauty, far above the rest of humanity, deeply in love. And we have often been to the ocean where, our little beetle parked nearby, we sat on the rocks, or strolled hand-in-hand along the […]
Letter: Berries from the Tree
Soon Thanksgiving, then Christmas,To gather our dear family,But not the one who loved to decorate,With the berries from the tree. If life could be lived over,I would love her far more tenderly,I would not complain at any request,Like gathering berries from the tree. To hold her hand more, flowers just because,Throughout that blessed half-century,To do […]
Letter: The Glass Door Knobs
“Do you think we could find my wedding dress?” My wife of 50 years married thought it would be fun to see if it still fit, if, of course, we could even find it after all these years. She thought sure the dress had survived the fire when our home was destroyed so long ago […]
Letter: An Ordinary Wall
Our daughter is an artist. At Christmas, gifts to me are encased in brown wrapping paper upon which are her free-hand sketches of life as she sees me living it. It is the Dutch girl (my wife), that married Goofy (that’s me), that resulted in a granddaughter (one of 10 grandchildren) who hangs out with […]
Letter: Almost Heaven
Far out over the valley below where the old barn stood on the hill, the terminus of the irrigation ditch filled with water that provided nourishment for the cows was lost in the haze of the setting sun. It was one of our favorite outings, to take country roads just to see where they led. […]