There is just something about November that seems to invite reflection. In my family, there is a calmness, following a sports-fueled Fall. The days are brisker and darker and I find myself wanting to breathe out and enjoy the quiet.  Life, briefly, slows down. Three years ago, I shared a number of things I was… Read More Always Thankful

We knew for the past month or so that our dog would not be making it through another winter. He had bad hips from the start, but after approximately 14.5 years, our rescue pup was finally running out of steam. He has had a great run. Our pup joined our family before we even were… Read More Old Dog

In early June, deep into the end of school craziness, a particularly busy weekend of seemingly endless sports culminated in a final Sunday softball game, under the lights in our town’s fancy stadium, starting at 6:30pm. Games under the lights are always a lot of fun. My daughter begged to pitch and was given her… Read More Playing Ball

I met the toddler son of one of my dearest friends. I – badly – videoed my daughter participating in a street performance at Faneuil Hall, throwing balls to an acrobat at various distances like a boss, showing the crowd how it was done. I stopped wearing the minimal makeup that I had been sporting. … Read More This Summer…

Today, I officially become the age where I now round up to half a century.  How crazy is that? It sounds so old. I don’t feel old. I still feel so clueless, so much of the time. Yet here I am, muddling through. The physical signs are wild enough. I am starting to get a few… Read More This is 45

Early this year, my gym a six-week nutrition challenge. It did not adopt one of the trending diet programs.  No Keto-intermittent fasting-Paleo-Low Carb program to follow. Instead, its goal was to eat mainly real food and avoid processed foods, junk food and sugar. It stressed the importance of meal prepping, as we all know how… Read More Clean-Ish Living

A few days after my mom passed away, I got a call from Dr. K, the palliative care doctor we had met with just a few weeks back.  As my mother was getting sicker, I had left her a message a bit desperately, confused and grasping for information. I had left the message on a… Read More PostScript

When family and friends learned that my mother passed, people reached out full of concern and love.  I think the idea of losing a parent hits everyone deep.  Whether they are remembering their own loss, or imagining how difficult it will be when it happens to them, losing a parent, at any age, is heartbreaking.  You… Read More Part three

When I received the late night call that my mother had passed, I was a mess. I felt guilty that I did not jump in the car the moment her nurse told me she was failing. Had I done so, I might have gotten there in time. I felt terrible that she died alone. During the… Read More Part two

Some of you have been on this journey with me since my mother’s first Thanksgiving after moving into a nursing home. Some much longer, some shorter. It seems only fitting to share the end of her story. At the end of January, we learned that my mother’s health was declining and that she had, maybe, up… Read More Her end – part one