May is always a full month for both my head and my heart. It houses my sweet mother’s birthday, Memorial Day which honors my veteran dad, and our anniversary. Those three markers, which occur within four days of each other, could be killer dates and could make me want to wipe May off the calendar map. But they don’t because May is also the blessed month of something else. It holds another birthday, that of our first grandchild, who is named after my mother, and who is a remin

I did an interview this week with Lighthouse Media. One of the questions that the interviewer asked was if I could share something personal, something funny about Charles. I willingly threw my husband under the bus and, and even though it’s already outed in a conversation in “Hey, God? Yes, Charles.”, I reminded the world about his reputation for losing things – glasses, umbrellas, gloves, anything really. As I told the interviewer, one of the best examples was when he was sh

Elvis came back in the building Saturday night. A dear friend threw herself a 70th birthday party, and she did it by taking us back to the 50's. A wop bom a loo bop a lomp bam boom! In addition to Elvis himself, there were soda jerks and milkshakes and hula hoops and vintage cars. Poodle skirts and bobby socks were in abundance, along with the greasers and the bad boys. The music never stopped and neither did the bop, the rock, and the stroll. But the best thing were the

If you’ve read “Hey, God? Yes, Charles.”, you know that I became a vegetarian years ago. Over time, I also learned to check labels to see if products were tested on animals and, if at all possible, to avoid those items. Once, Charles and I were traveling (he was working; I was playing!) and, since it was a business trip and travel expenses were covered, I thought I might splurge at the hotel spa one morning. I called that desk and I guess “Buffy” answered the phone. I explain

Closure? Really? Is that always a requirement for grief recovery? I love live theater, on both sides of the stage. If you’ve ever worked backstage, you know that, once the curtain opens for a live performance, the stage manager runs the show. And if you’ve ever been a stage manager, you know that every performance is different – both on stage and behind the scenes. One of my fondest memories is stage managing a sweet play in a beautiful, historic structure that was being resc

More than once, a reader has told me almost apologetically how he or she is sharing instead of buying a copy of “Hey, God? Yes, Charles.”. Thank you, but, with a nod to my publisher :), I promise you I don’t care about books SOLD. Sales are, in fact, just fine, but even if they weren’t, what matters to me are books READ, and the opportunity for a reader to benefit from that reading. And I’m learning lots of ways that books are being shared. They’re neat really, through book

....if you need a refresher on why these blooms are ah-mazing, reread my blog from March 31 and enjoy them at my non green thumb expense.

If you’ve read “Hey, God? Yes, Charles.”, you know that some of the conversations observe me being whiny, angry, irritable, and uncharacteristically helpless. That is because, during that time, I was often whiny, angry, irritable, and uncharacteristically helpless. Not very flattering, but true. But it was also true that I knew then, and I know today, the gratitude that our family felt for all the support that surrounded us after Charles died. Before I was in that place, I co

A friend asked me - "do you remember the prayer you wrote when the book first came out?" She continued - "I keep that prayer on my desk." I do remember it, of course, but I also remember something else. The book publisher shared this prayer on their wider forum in social media and it received a lot of positive responses. Except one. I felt so bad for this one person because I knew he was exactly where I had been for a long time after Charles died. It wasn’t personal. He just