One carefully avoided – although just in time – the crack in the sidewalk. The other, the younger of the two, being blissfully unaware of how huge a misstep stepping on a concrete expansion joint really is – second only to stepping on the other’s shadow (not polite) – toddled alongside. With time and practice […]
Letter: When Those Grieving Return Home
The setting of the story entitled “The Secret Garden” where the narrative unfolds, centers around a private-walled, bramble-invested, weed-overgrown, unkempt- and long-unattended theater of sorts where once roses took center stage. Following the death of Archibald Craven’s wife – who tended the garden – the sorrowing, grieving husband locked the garden gate, buried the key, […]
Letter: When The World Leaves You Behind
Fifteen months into my service as school board director I lost my wife of 50 years to cancer, now just nine months ago today. And at a school board director’s conference this weekend I lost again. It is my hope that these two losses, added together, will equal a win for those who read what […]
Letter: The Family Room
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 […]