Uncategorized Category Archive
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Words with Fathers
“Oh, the comfort – the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person – having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the […]
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Mother’s Day Gifts – Homemade
In 1971, I thought I gave my mom the best Mother’s Day gift ever. As the only girl in the fourth grade who couldn’t make the highly competitive glee club class at Christopher Columbus PS 15, I had a free period every Tuesday morning and my teacher, Miss Hall, decided that I should be productive. […]
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That’s Him All Over
We were never a traveling family. There were too many reasons not to be. The logistics of going places with five kids. The dogs. My husband’s job. And, most important of all, there was money–lack of. In elementary school, our children were totally convinced that they were the only kids on the East Coast who […]
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The Madness of March
The wind howls and rattles the windows in the family room. On TV, Brian Williams reports that North Korea is threatening nuclear attacks and that the eyes of the world are on the Vatican. I nestle in the corner of the sofa closest to the lamp so I can sort through the day’s mail. Two […]
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Transforming Valentine’s Day
For me, Valentine’s Day has long been synonymous with affectionate greetings from cartoon characters. As a child in the politically incorrect 1970’s, I addressed my Aristocat cards – “You’re purrfect Valentine!” – to only those students I truly cared for. I gently deposited my stack in the humongous red cardboard box on the teacher’s desk […]
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Remembering and Returning the Love
On Sunday afternoon, my sister Sandy and I travelled from New Jersey over the Goethals Bridge to the same West Brighton, Staten Island neighborhood we had visited so many times before. We weren’t the giggly look-alike girls with the uneven brown bangs in the back seat of a station wagon, but grown women dressed in […]
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The Rise of the “Non-Religious” Farewell
The fastest growing “religious” group in America is made up of people with no religion at all, according to a Pew survey showing that one in five Americans is not affiliated with any religion. The number of these Americans has grown by 25% just in the past five years, according to a survey released recently […]
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Cremation is About to Become the Predominant Choice in the US.
According to the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), cremation is still on the rise. In fact, people choosing cremation over traditional burial is expected to rise to 60% by 2025. CANA attributes this rise in popularity to 5 factors: 1-A mobile population—For climate, for jobs, for family or any number of reasons, American move […]