We sat around the dinner table, our family of six happily sharing a meal with our grandparents.  Having the grandparents there was in itself always an occasion for family celebration.  We chatted about our lives as we passed heaping bowls and platters of another of our mom’s wonderful meals. We likely faced succulent roast beef, crispy, tangy green ( Read more... )

It was the Blue Hour. The evening sky was slipping into a gorgeous turquoise-indigo. A solitary brilliant planet was sparkling after a sultry summer day. My five-year-old grandchildren were snuggling close to me after a productive day of “gardening,” that is to say, running the hose, digging mushy holes in the resulting mud, and sticking bean seeds ( Read more... )

Christine sat on the side of her bed. A sickening feeling threatened to rise up in her gut and drown her.  The rosy patterned wallpaper of her room did nothing to lift her spirits. Nor did the forgotten school books splayed out on her bed ( Read more... )

The boom was deafening.

Aleksandr hid his head under his crossed arms. A rattling of chips fell down from the ceiling of the basement where he and his school mates were hiding. You never got used to the missiles, no matter how constant they were. He waited. He waited more. He would outlast those Russian monsters out there no matter how long it ( Read more... )

“G’day, mate! How ya doin’, Murray? Yer missus getting over her hives yet?” Rupert met his old pal from the tractor club by the front gate ( Read more... )

Grampa gazed fondly upon his sweet granddaughter Stephanie as she busied herself in his garden. His heart swelled as he saw the golden halo of her strawberry blond curls backlit from the sun. Stephanie was bending over to studiously select special rocks to slip into the pockets of her denim overalls. She glanced up at him furtively and quickly ( Read more... )

I gazed fondly at my Prince Charming over the flickering golden glow of the candle. It was our one-month wedding anniversary and he was treating me to an intimate dinner at “our” restaurant. What a whirlwind romance it had been!

“Yes, Darling, what were you saying?” I swirled the ruby liquid in its crystal glass. I guess I better not let myself ( Read more... )

It was Elizabeth who arranged the gallery because everybody was there. Cheerful pink and popping orange, thoughtful blues and soothing green canvases winked all around my parents’ verdant, shaded yard. It was a rodeo arena of art. And we were there to choose what to take home with us ( Read more... )

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Though none of us realized it at the time, there was an ominous silence emanating from my ninety-two year-old father, Roger’s, house last Thursday. Because he didn’t consider a fall from a eighteen-inch tall wall anything worth mentioning, he went on about his usual business without letting anybody know.


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