death

A video tribute to Papa

Jeff and I posted our first YouTube video last night. I did most of the prep work, loading and editing digital photos and scanning older pictures. Jeff selected the photos and arranged them, basically in chronological order, and chose the song that’s playing in the background, “I Find Your Love” by Beth Nielsen Chapman. I

Read on »

All Quiet: the book on war

Our book discussion group selected All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque for our November meeting. Before we started talking about it a few months ago, I didn’t really know more than the title, and hadn’t been interested in finding out more. But now I’ve read it, and I’m very glad we

Read on »

Cheated

Last Thursday evening was the third grade music program at school, so our family went to watch Kyle do his thing, and Sue rode with us. It was hard, as everything these days is hard, but we seemed to be doing okay, clapping and smiling, and even chuckling at some of the more amusing parts.

Read on »

Book 2 of my most influential five

When I was a teenager – often depressed, no self-esteem, thinking of death and hurting myself – I bought a used paperback anthology of poetry by women. I had heard of Sylvia Plath, and might already have read The Bell Jar, but hadn’t yet been exposed to her poetry. The book’s introduction quoted these lines

Read on »

Voices in my head, these days

It has been two weeks since Gerald passed away. We are meeting with his doctor later this afternoon to hear more about the results of blood tests taken in the emergency room, and any other information from the hospital records that might help us understand how he became so sick so very fast. The first

Read on »

How long do you hope for a miracle?

That was a question I asked Jeff in the Intensive Care family waiting room on Friday, September 19, 2008. My father-in-law’s condition was not improving. He was on a ventilator, and hadn’t taken a breath on his own since about 6am that day, when he’d collapsed at home. His kidney had stopped working, his lungs

Read on »

Memorial

In the interest of providing a quick update on what’s been going on with our family this past month or so, I’m re-posting a couple of blogs that I first posted on MySpace. This is a short one, posted on April 21, 2008. Jeff is driving the boys to school, and I may have five

Read on »