The Final Mile of Writing a Memoir

There are a lot of emotions tangled up in writing your life story. I have come to learn that it’s not MY story, but a tapestry of many people’s stories all woven together. It’s been cathartic writing through the struggles Jim and I faced in our marriage. Wading through the nitty-gritty of my mother’s history […]

aging , reinvention , writing - September 6, 2018

Help.

“You need to learn how to accept help,” my friend Jane told me back in 2011 when I was packing up the home my family was leaving after 27 years. She had barged into my house uninvited, thank God, her arms full of boxes, intent on helping me through one of the most difficult times […]

writing - August 25, 2018

50 Years – Has Anything Changed?

I wrote this piece for a writing class four or five years ago. After listening to all the MLK tributes yesterday, I thought it might be worth resurrecting. “Is it fair to hold OUR children back in order to let the negrah kids catch up?” I was only 16 when I heard these words come from […]

writing - April 5, 2018

I get low right about now every year.

I get low right about now every year. I’ve often wondered if it was simply the cold weather. Being a Southerner, I don’t take kindly to frost. Or maybe the cold holds me back from walking as often, or even feeling motivated to do so. Or is it the adrenalin hangover after the hustle and […]

aging , Learning , NYC , Shanghai , writing - February 3, 2018

My Dad

One of the gifts I received while working with writing tutor Jane Gassner came after she pushed me over and over again to get my 87-year-old mother to share her story. Jane insisted I understand how my mother’s upbringing, her marriage to my father and the times in which they lived impacted my own life’s […]