Darkness before the sun My mother was born in 1924, which makes her 98. The year she took her first breath coincided with the formation of the Mercedes-Benz Corporation, the naming of J. Edgar Hoover to head the FBI, the fascists winning the election in Italy by 2/3 majority and the end of construction of the Wrigley Building. As one of 11 children, she has witnessed the passing of eight of her siblings; only two “young” sisters are living, one 86, the other 92. She has attended dozens of funeral and memorial services during the past 30 or so years […]

(Scroll down to leave a comment on these two opposites) The Princess The luxurious European vehicle sped from the Hotel Ritz Paris with pursuers in tow. It traveled to the Pont de l’Alma tunnel, where shortly thereafter the car was involved in a horrific crash that caused the death of three of its occupants, among them a member of British royalty and her  rich boyfriend. It occurred just after midnight on August 31, 1997. The passing of Diana Spencer, the beloved former Princess of Wales, convulsed the world into such a state of grief that three million mourners and onlookers […]

Marriage seminars were never really “my cup of tea.” Not that I feel my performance as a husband is exemplary and does not need adjusting. Personal failures of both the witting and unwitting variety are sufficient to merit a closer look. Yet, the idea of sitting in a closed space with couples bearing their burdens for an extended period of time while a “trainer” provides helpful advice was not appealing to me. Of course, my stalling tactics fell on deaf ears and subsequently Julianne and I “agreed” to attend one sponsored by a friend. And, you know what? It wasn’t […]

I am not a Facebook aficionado. Being both old and old fashioned, my preferred human interaction involves being able to smell the other person’s breath. I would much rather be “in your face” than on your Facebook. So it was somewhat out of character to open a message from Mike Garland, a former co-worker, to find a photograph of a sunrise taken from his ocean home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For some strange reason, my immediate reaction involved not so much the beauty of the shot, but rather the thought that since sunsets and sunrises look identical to the […]