It Is What It Is

My sweet mother has passed away. She, the one with so much enthusiasm for life. She, the busiest bee of them all. The one we all thought would live to be a hundred. She was 79. She was never sick until they found cancer in a routine mammogram. It was non-Hodgkin Lymphoma — not the…

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I Vow to Love You… And to Wear Flats to Outdoor Weddings

On June 28, my step-son David (whom I’ve loved and co-parented since he was 12) was married in Orange County in the city of Aliso Viejo, California. It was an elaborate three-day event which began with rehearsals and a dinner Friday evening, a tea ceremony at the bride’s parents’ home Saturday morning, and an outdoor wedding at 5:00…

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When at a Loss for Words, Just Say “Wella, Wella, Wella”

My family likes to play games at holiday get-togethers. Card games, word games, board games, practical jokes. It’s all good. One year at Christmas we purchased the party board game called Cranium. Mom and I were in a showdown with my aunt and my cousin, and I had about thirty seconds to get Mom to guess my impression…

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The Value of Things

When I was fourteen, my entire freshman English lit class watched the movie Romeo & Juliet together. Some of the kids in my class teased me about looking a little like Juliet and for the next week they added an extra “et” to the end of my name to make it three syllables so it rhymed…

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