Jennifer L. Keene
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Grief in all its miserable forms
When I make the trip home to Pennsylvania, I am inevitably drawn to my late father’s closet. I stick my entire face into his clothes hanging there and breathe, hoping to catch a trace of him and to feel close. I run my fingers over his button down shirts – one crisp white with a…
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Last Christmas
As Adrienne, Christina and I walked through the crowded Union Square holiday market, I cracked a terrible joke. We’d just had brunch at Javelina. Maybe it was the margarita. Remembering the money I spent last Christmas on gifts for Dad at that same market, I asked “think I can get my money back?” before mumbling “gallows…
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The trouble of an idle mind
My plane landed early at JFK Tuesday night, but a hiccup with the equipment meant that we didn’t disembark until well after 11 pm. While we waited for a tow, my mind wandered. My phone was dead. Without email, texts, Twitter and Words with Friends, my thoughts were all I had. And they quickly turned sad…
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NYC is full of surprises
I never know what I’ll see on my way to and from work. Tonight it was this: <div class="sqs-video-wrapper" data-provider-name="" data-html="”> Each time someone put money in Wonder Woman’s bin, we would get a new dance (or a fancy walk to the trash…) but the silver man just stood still, money or no money. It…
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New book alert: Extreme Ownership is out today
Happy Publication Day to Leif Babin and Jocko Willink! Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win is now available from St. Martin’s Press everywhere books are sold. In Extreme Ownership, authors Babin and Willink synthesize their experiences as highly decorated Navy SEALs into principles we can all use to succeed in business and…
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I learned a hard lesson
When I was eight or nine years old, I learned a lesson. It came via ballet class, like so many of my early life lessons. On my way to stardom – obviously I started taking ballet when I was four, added jazz at five and tap at six. From the start, there were milestones we…
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Dear Dad
Dear Dad, This will be my first birthday without you. You always sent me a sweet card in the mail and called to sing me the birthday song first thing in the morning. How I will miss that. When I think about you that way, my heart aches. It’s better if I try to think…
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Into the woods
It’s really hard to hate a tree. I thought I would hate this tree I know because I tried. But as I stood in front of the beautiful cherry tree my father used to climb to hunt deer and otherwise be among nature, I couldn’t find it in my heart to hold a grudge.…
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Learning through grief
Tomorrow will mark one month since my dear, sweet, wonderful Dad died. I’m doing OK, but it still sucks. I still cry. I still feel sad and awful and shocked that the world keeps turning without Dad present. But I am also starting to manage to not cry every time I see a pic of Dad…
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My first post about Life After Dad
My worst fears came true: my sweet, kind gentleman of a Dad died on Friday, July 17. I have so many thoughts and feelings on this sad time, but need a little time to pull myself together and get my life back in order. Dad spent most of the last five weeks of his life in a Philadelphia…
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