As a child, I didn’t hear the word “happy” mentioned much—my father had TB and was in and out of sanitoriums, my mother cleaned houses and managed a boardinghouse, and we were on welfare —for which we were grateful, but it was not much to be happy about. When I got married at 21, I thought I was happy. Looking back, it was more mental than emotional…more like what I was supposed to feel on one’s Wedding Day. It wasn’t until much later, in my early thirties, with two kids, ear

Before Richard died last summer, I was just me. Now, almost a year later, I’m a combination of him and me. Richard no longer is alive, but he still lives in me. Not every minute of every day, but often enough for me to know that he still is a part of me. So that I could tell him that cousin Terry died the day after he did, our grandson had gotten his Phd; that Robert Redford and Diane Keaton had died; that I had a stomach virus, or how terribly angry I continue to be with Tru

Several weeks ago, as I was walking along Broadway, I met a neighborhood acquaintance, a single woman in her late sixties. I hadn’t seen her in a while and she asked how I was doing, since Richard had passed last summer. “Okay,” I told her, “it’s such a relief knowing he’s without pain.” “I don’t know how you did it,” she said. “I could never have managed caring for my father at home in his final years. It’s such an intimate experience”. “Yes, it is,” I agreed, “but it’s diff

Three of my grandchildren graduated from college in five days: On May 6, Lu (they/them/their), 22 years old, got their Master’s in Public Health from Temple University; on May 8, Natalie, 29, defended her PhD in Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania, and on May 9, Sophie, 21, received her BA from the School of Design at Syracuse University. Graduating from Temple, Lu looked as radiant and happy as I’ve ever seen them. The graduation ceremony included a very diver

I read recently that, in 1951, there were over 28,000 reported cases of polio in the United States. By 1952, cases had climbed to over 57,000. Fortunately, the polio incidence plummeted after the Salk vaccine was introduced, falling to under 1,000 cases by 1962. Then a few years ago, in 2022, the virus resurfaced in wastewater samples in Rockland, Orange, and Nassau Counties, and New York City. I remember it all. It was the summer of 1951. I was 12. Playgrounds, b

This week, May 6th-10th, three of my grandchildren will be graduating from three different universities, each at a different level of academic achievement: Sophie, 21, will receive her BA Degree from the Syracuse University School of Art; Lu, 22, will receive their Master’s Degree in Public Health from Temple University; and Natalie, 29, will receive her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Sophie, the youngest of the three grads, is the child of m

My husband Richard never had any desire to go to Paris. Born of Italian heritage, his favorite travel destination was Italy. “Besides,” he told me, the French are a bit too arrogant for my taste.” Myself, having a French Canadian background and eager to practice my childhood French, I had been to Paris once with my first husband and, again, following our divorce, with my two teenage kids. I was ready to go again, but Richard was not easily convinced. Until 2002, when our very

I never saw my parents read a book. Both had left their homes in Nova Scotia to come to the states when they turned 18, and neither had gone to college. Reading a book was not something they were accustomed to doing. I remember them reading only our newspaper, The Daily News. As for me, I learned to love to read as a kid, when a cousin introduced me to Nancy Drew. After that, I read almost anything I could get my hands on. Give me a book and I was happy. But I was allowed to

I last saw my father at my 8 th grade elementary school graduation. Seaview Hospital, a TB sanitarium on Staten Island, had given him a pass just for the day. As I sat on the stage, I saw him enter the auditorium. In a brown leather jack and gray slacks, he looked healthy; he looked handsome. How he could look so good and be so sick, I wondered. After the ceremony, Dad took Mom and me out to lunch, but it was short. He had to return to the hospital by late afternoon. “Be goo

“ Are you sure you don’t have eyes in the back of your head ,” I often asked him. Carl is blind—has been since he was 14 and diagnosed...

I’ve had a headache for the past eight years. Ever since Donald Trump became president. And it won’t go away unless and until Kamala...

My husband Richard knows who he is and where he lives. He can scooter his way to the library and to the supermarket and knows how to come...

Richard and I have been married 40 years. No matter how loving a relationship, you can’t spend 40 years with a person and never let it...

When I was 60, I said, "I probably have 25 summers left. Now that I'm 85, I say, "I probably have 5 or 10 summers left."That’s how I have...

This is today’s reality for those of a certain age: Whether because of old age, dementia, or Alzheimer’s, many of us will end up having...

Last week I went out to buy a calendar planner. The one I was using was coming to the end of its 12 month year. It’s a school year...

Now they tell me! Now they say that diets don’t work. I could have told them that myself. Years ago. The New York Times recently reported...

This week I drove to Great Barrington to spend a week in the same place I’ve been renting for the past five summers—a stunning white...

God bless Mental Health Days—the days that when you have the most to do, and you feel the least able to do them. Instead of working...

Although I love to leave the city in the summer, there’s no other place I’d rather live for the rest of the year, especially now that I’m...