People have often said when I was growing up that I had my dad’s eyes, a somewhat unique blue, and that always makes me smile. As you read my writing, you will quickly learn that my dad was one of my greatest heroes throughout much of my life. With the exception of a few years in my teens, I just knew that he was a pretty smart old guy. And in reality, he was always…
My father passed on Sept 1, 2001, and I won’t lie and say that a part of me wasn’t ready but the little girl who just lost her lifetime hero still wanted to understand why. Another part of my sadness was because of my son who would turn 11 in less than two weeks. He had lost one grandpa just before Christmas in 2000, and now his other grandpa and best buddy had passed just…
When I tell people my story, I’m always told that I have a lot of Resilience, but I’ve never understood what it means. According to the Oxford dictionary, Resilience means “The Capacity to recover from trauma”. My life has been full of events that will challenge many and provide a whole new meaning to resilience. My story begins in 1990 at the end of Ceausescu’s reign, the Romanian dictator who took the population’s…
When my father passed, we placed a bench in his favorite state park as a memorial. It overlooks a small stream and is surrounded by massive trees. At some point, he learned the very important lesson that there is so much serenity to be found when surrounded by nature. It is a pure connection to the world that has been displaced by electronics, multitasking and the desire to always accomplish more. He knew that…
On the morning of September 11, 2001, and for a period of time that was either hours or an eternity- I can’t remember- we didn’t know where my brother was. We knew he was somewhere in lower Manhattan, where he attended Stuyvesant High School. Like any regular 14-year-old kid, most of the time he’d go right to school in the morning, and *other* times he’d run around with friends in the neighborhood first, or…
“Why, why am I still here.” Her question to me was so simple, and her labored words told me just how much she wanted to be done here. But I had no definitive answer for her other than these difficult words. At 87, no one more deserves freedom and peace than you. But I’m a believer- and so are you, in a higher power. And that power protects us and guides…
“I feel that my work in progress has progressed to its final page and someone has glued it to the cover because there’s no more to be written,” she said to me in one of our many, many email conversations. It took me some time to process the gravity of her eloquent words as she tried to gently prepare me for the future. I needed to find a way to translate the feelings in my…
My father has been gone for over 15 years, but I learned a new lesson from him today, or maybe I was just finally able to understand the lesson. Dad was a child of the depression and although the stories of his childhood always sounded like great adventures when I heard them as a child, I now have finally grasped the truth about his challenging childhood. If it can be called a childhood. His…
My grandmother, my mother’s mother, was always an important part of life. Many of my fondest childhood memories include holidays with her as well as summer days spent at her house. She was the only grandparent that was a part of my life after my grandfather, her husband, passed away just before my 5th birthday. But I never felt that I missed out on having more grandparents, she was always more than enough for me.…
Very seldom am I ever really surprised or even caught off guard by another person’s comments. I have worked very hard to come to accept that it really does take all kinds. And for a rational person, the only choice is to make peace with that fact. Then on a rare occasion or two, you are rewarded with the welcome surprise or unexpected good outcome. My most recent reward moment came to me from my…