Tag: family
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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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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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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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26 Hugs
I smiled as I read the note from Mom that arrived in the mail along with a newspaper clipping about “the importance of affectionate touching.” She remembered. I certainly did too. I was a strange little kid sometimes. My parents tolerated it all. Embraced it really. From the one-woman girl baton-twirling, roller-skating-on-the-living-room-carpet shows I would…
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