Tag: Dad
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Why I got a tattoo
When I told my mother I was getting a tattoo right after our visit ended, she didn’t mince words. “At your age?!” Mom replied, loudly enough that the woman next to us in the nail salon reacted with a quiet chuckle. “Yep,” I told her. I felt resolute. Mostly, anyway. Mom wasn’t happy about it,…
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Missing Dad – it’s the little things
I didn’t expect this, my third Father’s Day without him, to hurt as much as it did.
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The other grandmother
It makes me sad not to know if I would have called her Grandmother or Granny or some other name. It would not be Nana. That name was reserved for my mother’s mother. I never got a chance to call my father’s mother, Sophie Lillian Demsky Keene, anything; she died when I was less than…
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Shared grief
I cried when I heard the news. It arrived, like most of what I consume in the moment: via Twitter. After I finished saying aloud “No!” I turned to Google. There were no new results in the News tab and I hoped against hope that someone had jumped the gun and gotten things mixed up. But…
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How much do you want to see Hamilton on Broadway?
Whether you have never seen the hit Broadway show Hamilton or you’re dying to see if again, you have come to the right place. I have a pair of tickets – orchestra seats – for January 4, 2017 up for auction on ebay through August 24. You can learn more and bid here. You’re probably…
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All these terrible anniversaries
I knew to dread Christmas. Because obviously, Mom and my first Christmas without Dad would be hard. My body created a buffer of sorts: I was sick in bed with bronchitis for three days beginning Christmas Eve, leaving Mom to fend for herself. I was so ill I couldn’t even feel guilty until later. I…
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The monster in me
My mother is crying. I am sitting with my arms around her in a gesture meant to comfort, but it’s a perfunctory effort. My arms may as well be made of wood, and my heart, of stone. It’s February and we are in Florida, attempting to celebrate my mother’s first birthday without Dad. Mom is…
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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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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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