I really should, at the end of this Retrospect enterprise, tell the story of meeting John and Patti. So much good has come in my life as a direct result of sitting down, in about the fourth pew from the front of the church, about three seats in from the left-hand aisle, next to a… Read More

My mother was the secretary for her ninth grade class. They graduated in 1953 in Newton, Massachusetts. By the time she and her friends had finished three years at Bigelow, the class had been together for three years. They knew each other well, having grown up together, many of them in the same elementary school… Read More

This prompt brought back powerful memories of a yellow gingham skirt my mother made in the 70s. She and my father took square-dancing lessons for a while, the outfits were wild. He had western style shirts with ruffles and mother-of-pearl buttons. She made skirts and wore them with ruffled blouses. She also made very puffy… Read More

Today I’m thinking about all the women I have worked with. Some have been bosses, many many colleagues, and now I have two women who are my employees (heaven help them). I want to honor the women who taught me how to work: Cathy, the nurse manager at UCSF who hired me fresh out of… Read More

The fact that I am woman of a certain age makes it easier to understand why I never played baseball as a child. I think I would have loved playing growing up, in a sand lot, the way my husband did, but that game is way way over. Our son played Little League for many years,… Read More

For me, being a parent is almost indistinguishable from being a poet. Read More

I loved reading about the very friendly skies while the little kids were asleep. Read More

I almost broke my neck sometimes, standing on one leg, making sure none of the boys could see, sheesh. Read More

After my first husband left me, I thought I would die of the pain. I was wrong. Read More

Maine is hard to get to from just about anywhere. But I'll make that journey every time. Read More