Mar
31
2022
As I plan for Dad’s Celebration of Life, the person helping me organize the décor told me that because the stage is large, she imagined we could make it like a garden and asked if my Dad liked gardens....
Mar
30
2022
One day, I was wiping down the bathroom sink. Focused and intensely absorbed in my work, I didn’t hear my oldest daughter Natalya come into the room. She came up behind me and hugged me. Her hand rested on...
Mar
29
2022
Dad and I liked to play solitary card games while racing against each other. Our favorite was kings in the corner. These games are addictive—just one more game. March Madness can have a sense of addiction and a tinge...
Mar
28
2022
Years ago, one of our dear friends had a church interview to lead a small group, and it had a level of harshness that surprised us all. She relayed the woman didn't ask open-ended OR meaningful questions but interrogative...
Mar
25
2022
Today is my middle daughter Ariana’s birthday. She has the last birthday in four weeks of March birthdays to celebrate in our family. When she was four months old, she stopped gaining weight. She looked wan and sickly. I...
Mar
24
2022
Dad and I loved March Madness—mainly because it was fun to coach and critique the teams. We were often negative spectators, so Shann had to put us in our place when we became too harsh or pessimistic. Dad would...
Mar
23
2022
I heard a woman share the gospel, and it was truly an inspired gift. She connected the oil spill image off the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, where hundreds of thousands of birds were carefully washed and cleaned by...
Mar
22
2022
We traveled to NYC recently, and our family watched the MJ musical highlighting the life of Michael Jackson. It has been met with controversy, and some people have decided to boycott the show in protestation. We saw it and...
Mar
21
2022
My brother and I are planning my Dad's Celebration of Life. Dad loved short phrases and slogans, so I love to call his memorial day Dad's COL. Planning has been challenging because when Jay and I call each other...
Mar
18
2022
Today is my Dad’s birthday. Do I write that it would have been his 80th or that it is his 80th birthday? I will say it is Dad’s 80th birthday. When I think of others who are 80, I tend to believe that...
