This is The Farm. One-hundred acres of wild woods and domesticated fields. A couple dozen milk cows, two draft horses, two pigs, twelve+ rabbits, twelve-odd laying hens, twenty-four ducks, one billy goat, one barn cat named Jasper, and one mongrel dog named Skippy. And four barefoot kids. “I have always loved wild places. I grew […]
Posts in the Memoir category:
The First Memoir I Ever Read…
The first memoir I ever read was Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. It caught my ear as I was waiting in the car while my husband popped into an auto parts store. We were parked at the intersection of Route 412 and Butterfield Coach Road in Springdale, Arkansas and the auto parts surely had something to […]
Barkeep! Another Round of Hugs, please!
After another long COVID week, I am longing for some refreshment. Liquid? Virtual? Physical? Any kind of refreshment. I think I’d like a Lemon Drop Martini. It’s been many years since I’ve ordered one. If the barkeeper has been careful passing it to the waitperson and the waitperson has managed to get to my table […]
A Message from my Past
This morning, I opened a journal that I began several years ago, and revisited the opening entry. “Intro to Survival. The night I realized that the writing was going to be my redeemer, I dove in head first. I’ve never jumped head first into anything. I always feel like I have to explain why I […]
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
I haven’t posted in a while because here on the home front, beyond politics and Covid-19, I’ve been riding the roller coaster of Life. I’ve been hanging tight… It wouldn’t be Life if we didn’t have a few lessons to learn, right? I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and a happy new […]
A Covid-19 Survival Story
My mother tested positive for Covid-19 on April 11, 2020. A week later, she experienced difficulty breathing, coughing, but no fever. After days of being very ill, she was moved to the Positive-Covid-19 floor of her nursing home in Massachusetts. She was on oxygen continuously for several days, then periodically as needed. Then– she got […]
One Eye Open
This morning I awakened like a sleepy dog, one eye open, a bright new day rising up from the east. I wonder what today will bring. Will I learn to breathe through the morning news without a rise in blood pressure? “One day at a time”, one of my brothers tells me via Messenger. My […]
Day 17. Self-quarantine and what have I learned?
Day 17. Self-quarantine and what have I learned? It’s not that different from my regular routine. Introvert here. I’m not accomplishing as much as I thought I would. Gained 3 carb pounds but lost them as soon as I realized I was foraging in the pantry too often. Walking the yard is more fun than […]
Linda 2.0
Today is my anniversary. It was precisely one year ago today that an IV drip began to dose me with the anesthesia that would propel me into a seven-hour surgery. A team composed of two oncology surgeons, an anesthesiologist, and ER nurses worked together to eradicate my breast cancer and put me back together again. […]
On the Steamship Finland
“Babci! Can I have a cup of tea?” I skipped into the kitchen and plopped into a chair at the kitchen window. From upstairs, I had watched Dziadzia heading across the lawn to the barn where he would milk the cows.“Yah,” said Babci. She opened the upper cupboard for tea cups and tea bags, then […]