March 19 this year will be the first day of spring, same as last year. March 19 of last year my wife who was Dutch – who thus not surprisingly loved tending to her tulips – left her garden here for her heavenly garden up there after tending to me, her husband, for 50 years. […]
Letter: The Day We Set Sail
She had to choose. One foot was on the dock, her other foot on the gunnel of our little sailboat pram that was departing in the gentle breeze. As the gap steadily widened, I shouted from where I manned the tiller, “Jump! Now!” With terror etched in her young face, our daughter leapt and landed […]
Letter: He Walked Her Home
Yesterday, just over 10 months after having lost my wife of 50 years to cancer, I designed our granite companion grave marker. Though my name will be engraved there, right below hers, at the moment there is no date after the dash for me. But there is for her. Do you know how hard that […]
Letter: Shiny Things and All Things Sparkly
What attracts you to something or someone? Oooh, Shiny! From flashy cars to solid gold toilets, from she-or-he’s cute to pretty eyes or great figure, we are culturally conditioned to be captivated by charms that glitter, and charms of a suitor. From infancy. “Babies,” writes Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, “can’t tell a diamond-coated Rolex from a […]
Letter: Stay Tuned
Do you have a ‘it-wasn’t-supposed-to-end-like-this’ story? Sure you do. We all do. A fire destroys all you held dear. Cancer takes your life-long traveling companion. The one who promised “to love and to cherish you until death do you part,” departs, maybe for someone else, leaving you alienated, isolated, rejected. An unhappily-ever-after story is likely […]
Letter: Who Are You Going to Call?
Is there a Red Phone to be used only in emergencies on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office of the White House? When your neighbor’s house is on fire, waking you up from a deep sleep in the very early morning, do you remember the three-digit number to call? When a cat gets its […]
Letter: Salamanders In Your Boots
By David Anderson, with a splashing puddle full of thanks to Marloes Deeterink. What is it about puddles and raindrops, blue rubber boots with green frog designs, and yellow rain jackets with hoods not up that beg for a leap-flying, pigtails-scattering, peals-of-laughter-the-air-splitting, water-and-mud-splattering (them and us and the camera lens) kersploosh that is so beautifully, and […]
Letter: Need To Get Away?
If you are planning on visiting Mount Rainier this summer, you’re going to need a reservation according to the National Park Service. Evidently there are too many people all at once wanting to get away from it all only to discover everybody else does too. Where do you go when your heart is overwhelmed, when […]
Letter: A Walk In The Woods
Two days from now will be 10 months since I lost my wife of 50 years to cancer. Lately I have been encouraged to think not how much I miss what I had with her, but to be happy, joyful even, that I had her at all and for so long and, even more importantly, […]