Tragedy to Triumph: A Knock on the Door Changed My Life…
July 31, 2014, was just another beautiful, sunny summer day in the suburbs of Chicago. I would have never guessed when I woke up that morning and kissed my husband goodbye as he went off to work that it would be the day that the world would forever change for me, my daughters and, frankly, […]
Christopher’s Gifts
I sat early one spring morning with my love’s head resting on my lap and his big trusting eyes looking into mine. For a clue. For a sign. For help. He seem to dissociate from what was going on with the rest of his body. It was just him and me there. In ICU. The beeps, the buzzers, the voices fading into a monotony of noise. He to me and me to him. I stroking his head, caressing his body, his magnificent body. His eyes boring into my heart and many on lookers, despite the early hour, watching the moment that was the two of us.
Do I have the strength?
Two Hawks, Two Yolks
“Now what?” I asked the Chihuahua that twitched at my feet, wrapped around my ankle. “I need to get some work done, and I’m distracted enough. This piece won’t write itself.” But complaining was a waste of breath because I always did what the dog wanted. As it was deep fall in Texas, temps were still a sultry 85 degrees, and today was that midweek break moronically called Hump Day. But my routine was off, and I was behind on everything. Here it was 2 pm, and I hadn’t even eaten yet. But 2 pm was too early for the dog’s
Tiger Lilies
I never thought much of them. To me, they were just some tall and ugly wildflowers in my least favourite colour. Orange. But my father saw Tiger lilies differently. They served another purpose for him. He’d summon us to the side of our house on the first day of school, the place where unkempt foliage thrived. It was the stuff he wouldn’t bother tending to, though we’d find him there without fail on the Tuesday after Labour Day. “Bring me the scissors,” he’d say, eyeing those lilies. We usually found the pruning shears in the garage, buried among a pile of
