My brother and sister and I went to Uncle Fred's funeral last week and sat in my father's pew. We didn't grow up with Victorian era Church of England assigned seating. We grew up with women on the left and men on the right, everybody singing four-part a cappella harmony. You don't need a piano… Continue reading Dad’s Seat
Category: Family
Between
I went to a funeral yesterday. I'll go to a funeral tomorrow. Two uncles died last week, one from each side of the family. I'm sad. Part of me feels like I'm making too much of it. One was 80, one 94. Both had been sick. Neither death was exactly a surprise. But I think… Continue reading Between
Here I Am
My father went to New York City in his twenties. He was the ninth and final child of a dirt-poor country butcher, the sixth child of the butcher's second wife. He'd grown up in rural Ohio, before the big roads were paved, when one side of State Route 585 was brick and the other side… Continue reading Here I Am
Bless You!
If there were a hall of fame for bodily noises, my sister would have pride of place in the Hall of Sneezing. Her sneezes come without warning, reach painful decibel levels, and have been responsible for more increased heart rate episodes in my life than any kind of romance. I am used to them, as… Continue reading Bless You!
The Flowered Shirt
I was wearing a flowered shirt when my sister told me that our mother was dying. I was definitely wearing something on the bottom half of my body — possibly a denim skirt — but only the shirt is there in my memory, vivid and bold. I’d never worn it before, and had hung it… Continue reading The Flowered Shirt