It was very late in the summer of 1970. I was a new teacher with a secondary science degree, desperate for a job. A parochial school in a small town of 1,300 people urgently needed an elementary teacher for geography, math and some science. It wasn't an exact match,...
February 4, 2006, was a night like no other.I hadn't slept well for some reason and at 3:30 am, just as I was drifting back to sleep, the light in our bedroom went on.A man was standing by our bed, glaring down at my husband and me!He had a short haircut and a goatee...
During the night of an ice storm in March 1957, my baby sister was born. While Mom was in the hospital, my four-year-old sister and I, a ten-year-old, stayed with our paternal grandparents. My nine-year-old brother stayed with our maternal grandparents.When the time...
Awakened by the phone ringing at 11:35 p.m., I fumble for the receiver beside my bed. Who would be calling at this time of night?"Hello," I mumble, my brain barely functioning."Mom, I'm not in jail." The voice at the other end belongs to my 21-year-old daughter,...
Woe.” He says the word as his blue eyes peer intently into mine.“No.” I repeat the word. “Watch where I put my lips and teeth, Dennis.”“No.” This time it sounds much more like what it was meant to be. We repeat it about a dozen times and go on to the next word.“Why,”...
Twinkling lights on the Christmas tree reflected off the red, green and blue ornaments, while candles waited to be lit. Outside a few snowflakes drifted down as the gray Sunday afternoon sky darkened. Night comes early in mid-December.Although it was less than two...
Autumn leaves drifted down on a sunny Saturday morning in late October 1985. I stood watching our children through a sliding glass door in the house where we were temporarily staying. Rachel, three, was rolling in the thick layer of leaves on the ground, while Tim,...
