Like Father Like Son
A week after Skye and I were married we watched all of our belongings get packed into boxes, piled into a giant, yellow moving van and shipped to Ohio, where we’d been waiting ever so impatiently for their arrival. We slept on the living room carpet of our empty apartment for three days, waiting for [...]

Why Your Bucket List Can’t Wait Another Day
After visiting Thelma in the nursing home, my husband and I have been having a lot of talks lately about our health, aging, and where we could find ourselves, you know, at the end. It has changed how we treat each other while we’re still continent. I never thought a nursing home would be all that [...]

My Plan to Never Wind Up in a Nursing Home
What I have learned so far this week: 1.    Don’t tell someone you’ll visit them in the nursing home and never actually get yourself there because you’re too afraid it’s going to smell like urine and depress the hell out of you. Think how they feel. On second thought, maybe they get used to the smell and [...]

You Can’t Get Rid of Me That Easy
I can think of a few people who’ve died, who I’d like to be able to call and hear their real live voice on the other end. I wish it was as simple as wanting it badly enough. Just pick up the phone, ask an operator to transfer me to wherever they are right now, [...]

Things I Carry With Me
In the height of my Enlightened to Domesticity years, when I cooked meals from recipes and kept the house in order, ironed shirts and made beds, used linen napkins and darned socks, I met Thelma, the oldest woman on the block. I adopted Thelma to be my grandmother and the kids’ great grandmother. We adored [...]