EVENT: Making Space — Rituals of Clearing Out & Releasing Stuff
Clearing out a closet or a home can feel overwhelming. Whether you’re dealing with childhood treasures, ancestral heirlooms, or ordinary household items, the real dilemma at the heart of the process is: “How do I know what to keep and what to move along?” This question is deeper than it appears [...]
What’s Your Grieving Style?
Do you know your grieving style? I didn't, until talking recently with our youngest son brought a new epiphany about how I experience grief. Yes, after decades of grappling with it, I uncovered still more. This actually delights me. Christian is a graduate student in social work and needed to [...]
Advice to Myself at the Start of 2023
Written in response to a writing prompt from the always amazing Jena Schwartz. Look out the window. Get to know the river’s waves and the flow, the barges and debris that float by. Notice how it curves, snaking to the east. Observe the birds gliding by. Hawks and vultures, crows, [...]
Obituary Writing Brings Healing
Growing up, I never thought of obituary writing as healing. They were terse blocks of text that my parents perused each morning over coffee. Their purpose was to announce the death and share funeral arrangements. In my journalism training, I learned that junior reporters were often assigned advance obit writing [...]
EVENT: The Healing Power of Stories
Virtual Book Discussion Series for Adults Bereaved in Childhood Adults who experienced loss during childhood have few places to tell our stories, remember our loved ones, and connect with others. I want to change that! In memory of my mom - Mary Lee Wimberg Morse, 1933-1970 Though [...]
Healthy Grieving Over Time on Television
Remarkably, grief and loss claimed the television spotlight as NCIS episode 17 of season 19 ("Starting Over") models healthy grieving over time. The show has portrayed loss realistically before in the immediate wake of traumatic events. Also, the lead character of Jethro Gibbs was driven by grief to a great [...]
“Where I’m From” — A Poem, A Process, A Conversation
My writer friend Alyson Shelton invited her Instagram followers to share poems created from the prompt, "Where I'm From," based on George Ella Lyon's poem with that title. I read mine live on Instagram as part of her weekly series, and I'm sharing the text below. You can also watch a recording here. [...]
EVENT Series: Grief Story Hour for Motherless Daughters
Is it time to tell your story? Women who lose their mothers early carry that grief throughout our lives, and we need spaces to talk about our experiences and receive support. Grief Story Hour is a series of Zoom gatherings that creates just that opportunity. Join us! Saturdays, 11 am [...]
When Book Content Triggers Old Emotions
Some aspiring readers of my memoir on early mother loss and long-term grieving have expressed to me that, although they very much want to read the book, they fear the emotions it might stir up from their own past losses or trauma. I’ve had this experience myself, so I reached [...]
Celebrating the Release of The Art of Reassembly!
Most often, the journey of writing a book and bringing it out into the world is excruciatingly long. There’s early scribbling or journaling, then ugly first drafts followed by rewrites, revisions, copy edits, proofreading—and more. It can take years, and sometimes, decades. In my case there was another step that [...]
RECORDING: The Art of Reassembly Virtual Event
Thanks to everyone who came and made the virtual launch such a rich and rewarding discussion! Special thanks to Got Grief Podcast hosts Craig Nannestand and Holly Sumpton for their gracious, skillful moderation. If you missed it, you can watch the recording HERE. (Passcode: %@u*v6K%)
How to Stepparent Grieving Children
Four years after my mom died of cancer, my dad got remarried. Right after the wedding his new wife, Aggie—my stepmother—moved into our family’s home. In truth, my siblings and I barely knew her. I wish they had known how to stepparent grieving children. Changes in Routine Quickly, with my [...]
Recognize That Somebody is Grieving—Even if They Don’t
Can you recognize the signs of grieving in this scene? One day when the youngest of my three children, Christian, was a baby, I placed him in his Pack’n Play and asked his older brother to keep an eye on him for a few minutes while I ran downstairs to [...]
Increase Calm in Your Life (and Enjoy It!)
I’ve always loved history, so over time my husband and I have evolved the habit of periodic “field trips” to places of interest. Our recent foray to ancient earthworks here in Ohio taught me as much about how to increase calm in my life as it did about people of [...]
Meeting Grief with Grace after Early Loss
After Casey Mulligan Walsh and I met in an online writers group, I wanted to hear her early mother loss story, but I soon discovered her familiarity with grief goes far beyond our shared experience, as does her wisdom. She became an orphan at age 12, lost her only sibling [...]
Healing Presence at the Food Pantry
Photo by Christian Fregnan on Unsplash Desks shoved aside in the second-floor classroom created open space for three pairs of wooden chairs facing each other. They comprised separate Healing Touch stations, with a seat each for the healer and the client. Peace prevailed despite the bustle of the [...]
How Do Virtual Healing Sessions Work?
Healing Touch practitioners have always offered virtual healing sessions while in a separate physical space from the client, but Covid-19 brought a new focus on this approach. For example, some clients prefer virtual sessions because of underlying health risks for the virus. Virtual healing sessions unfold much the same as [...]
What Does Science Say About Energy and Healing?
The science of energy healing has several facets. To start, quantum physics tells us that all matter is a bundle of energy that emits a surrounding field, even human beings. It might surprise you that familiar medical devices already use energy. For example, magnetic resonance imagery (MRI), computerized tomography (CT) [...]
Connect the Maternal Line on Motherless Mother’s Day
I wrote this post on what would have been my mom's 80th birthday in 2013. She had died in 1970 at age 37, more than half of an 80-year life span earlier. As the date approached, I found myself wanting to mark it somehow but lacking any specific ideas. Finally, [...]
Breast Cancer Risk: A Long-Term Relationship
Breast cancer risk has defined my life in key ways, starting with my mom’s death from the disease when I was seven years old. While I was in high school years, my stepmother took the then-unusual step of having a preventive double mastectomy because of numerous breast cancer cases over [...]
No Joke: Gritty Truth about Mother Loss
Dixie Perkinson is an actor, comedian, storyteller, and writer in Los Angeles. The basic facts of her mother loss story sound like a movie script, but her telling of it is completely real. She and I met last year at a Motherless Daughters retreat, and I’ve been following her blog [...]
Mary Poppins Shines Light on Grieving Children
If you missed the Mary Poppins Returns movie back in December, it's now available on DVD and via streaming on Amazon. Like the original, the new version creates a magical world of imagination, but this time childhood loss and grief drive the plot. As the movie opens, the adult Michael [...]
Telling Your Grief Story: A Playful Approach
Digital bread crumbs occasionally do lay a rewarding path, and I’m delighted to share such good fortune with you here. Clicking links recently from an article on Grief Diaries led me into the grief story of writer, artist and teacher Ann Petroliunas, a Chicago native now residing in Portland OR. [...]
Ripples of Grief Guest Post: Suriani Bakri
Reader Suriani Bakri submitted this heartfelt reflection in response to the Ripples of Grief e-course that I offered in 2018. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash What Happened It was November 11, 1986, and I was 15 years old. I had just come home from school. My grandma [...]
Celebrate Spring: Easter Egg Tree
I got the idea to celebrate spring with an Easter egg tree from my across the street neighbor, who is German and moved here with her husband and son due to employment with a major corporation. Though we had spoken outside on the street numerous times, I first crossed the [...]
Children’s Grief Awareness Day
When a child's parent or other loved one dies, they often feel somehow different from their peers as a result, set apart by their loss. I remember this happening for me very soon after my mom died. At her funeral at the Catholic parish where I attended second grade, walking [...]
A Mentor’s Legacy
A dear mentor and friend died unexpectedly last week, and I was very sorry to be unable to attend her funeral yesterday. For 22 years that included my young adult and parenting stages, Rosemary Conrad was the director of religious education at Bellarmine Parish. Our relationship began with a simple [...]
A Grieving Child for Life
Prince Harry’s recent revelation that he’s been in therapy to address long unprocessed grief about his mother’s death startled the world with its frankness on this vulnerable topic, especially from a member of Britain’s royal family. He described how in his late 20s, he began to have chaotic emotions, especially [...]
Library Love
National Library Week On a weekend away with several high school friends, around the outdoor fire pit one night somehow we began sharing stories of our early experiences with libraries. I thought I was just weird in my heartfelt devotion to these sacred spaces, but it [...]
What Is Essential?
On Thanksgiving Day, a dear friend sent an email greeting containing a link to this short reflection by Parker Palmer that included an amazing poem I'd never heard before, called "The Almanac of Last Things" by Linda Pastan. Kind of a reverse bucket list. The poem's title alone spoke viscerally [...]
Grappling with Body Image
Akagera Nat'l Park Recently I spent 10 wonderful days in Rwanda with my 22-year-old daughter. She studied there for a semester during college, and this trip was a chance to re-trace her steps and introduce me to the people and places she fell in love with two years [...]
A Season of Epiphany
Somewhere in my online reading of late, the phrase “season of epiphany” sparked my curiosity. A little searching uncovered that some Protestant churches observe the weeks starting with the feast of Epiphany on January 6 until Presentation/Candlemas on February 2 or until the start of Lent as the season of [...]
Follow the Maternal Line
Tonight I had the pleasure and privilege to deliver the homily at the monthly liturgy of the Resurrection Community here in Cincinnati, an independent congregation led by Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Several people asked for a copy of my remarks so I'm providing it here, along with the reading texts. Advent [...]
Remarkable Woman Rediscovered
Just in time for remembrance of the dead throughout November, I was introduced to the fascinating life of Regina Jonas, the first female rabbi (pronounced ReGEEna YOnas). She was honored as part of a program on women rabbis I attended last week at our nearby Jewish Community Center. Although ordained [...]
To Leave the Outgrown Shell
Last week we laid to rest my husband's maternal aunt, his mother's only sibling, Mary Lois Jung. She was a most wonderful and unusual individual who meant a great deal to me. In his remarks at the funeral, Joe observed that because she spent 30+ years in places like Pakistan [...]
Nurturing Seeds of Self-Care
Its always fun when several interests converge in a single project. I enjoyed that experience writing an article for Energy magazine about Vitality Cincinnati, an innovative enterprise launched by a group of folks led by our friend Brian Shircliff. Vitality makes Healing Touch and yoga and other self-care approaches available [...]
Ritual for Earth Day
On the eve of Earth Day, Joe and I seized the coincidence of lovely weather and an unscheduled evening to enjoy a walking ritual at a park near our house. In a sort of mini-pilgrimage, at points along the way we read aloud blessings for each of the four elements. [...]
A Brief Burst of Beauty
In the spring season of new life, the natural world teaches about resurrection. Visiting Washington DC this week for my first-ever Cherry Blossom Festival, I learned the Japanese word hanami, which literally means “to view flowers” but usually refers to the viewing of cherry blossoms. For more than 1000 years, [...]
A Patron Saint for Autism
In honor of World Autism Awareness Day on April 2, I am pleased to share a guest reflection below written by my cousin, Ellen Wimberg Cicconi, the mother of two sons on the autism spectrum. Among her many advocacy activities around autism, for more than ten years she and her [...]
Magnolia Speaks: A Poem for Spring
I am full and ready to burst with growth Reach up and out with my whole being Put my whole self out on this limb Vulnerable, I know, to wind and storms and cold Reach up and out with my whole being Free and unafraid, confident of my beauty and [...]
Threshold to the Sacred
I had the privilege of leading a birth retreat for young alumnae of a Catholic girls’ high school here in Cincinnati this past Saturday morning. The Embodying the Sacred mini-retreat seeks to connect the physical processes of pregnancy and birth with symbols of Christian faith to empower and celebrate women [...]
Changing Direction
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” a friend remarked recently as we chatted during an event for a non-profit where we’re both involved. “I know,” I said, “I’ve hardly been at church.” “Yes, I’ve noticed,” she replied, eyeing me pointedly over her glasses with an expression that said [...]
Ode to Trees
The soaring heights, elegant arches, and vast open spaces of Gothic cathedrals invite awe. As a college student studying abroad three decades ago, I wandered several times through Notre Dame in Paris, gazing upward and all around, amazed at the feats of engineering that produced such a worship space. Now [...]
Parable of the Spider
Joe and I frequent our back deck during the warm months, which is accessed via the sliding glass door adjacent to our breakfast room. Throughout the day we let the dog in and out there as well. It’s definitely a high-traffic entrance. On Labor Day morning, I slid open the [...]
Labyrinth Love
In his welcome to new parents last week, the president of St. Olaf College noted that no new or renovated buildings are opening this year but a labyrinth had been installed next to the chapel, which immediately piqued my interest. I have long loved labyrinths. That instant I determined to [...]
Dog Day and Discernment
Eleven years ago today, also a Friday, we adopted our dog, Carly, from a shelter. On our first visit to the shelter several days earlier to scope out possible dogs, we had spent time with Carly as well as a hound mix named Luke. Departing, the family was divided with [...]
Swim Team Spirituality
The summer club swim championships -- prelims today and finals tomorrow --have signified a major rite of the season around our house for quite a few years now, the past four through the lens of our oldest son's coaching role. But he was a team member for nine years before [...]
Called by Name
What’s in a name? Twice in the past month we have sat among hordes of beaming family and friends in crowded arenas, eagerly listening for our child’s name to be called in the time-honored ritual of graduation. Such events can go by in a blur, so I’m grateful to my [...]
Prayer for Graduates
The prayer below touched me very much at the conclusion of our son's graduation from Loyola University Chicago as part of the university president's blessing. He acknowledged the parents and invited us to stand and extend our arms over the graduates as we recited it together, a gesture so familiar [...]
No Minor Occasion
Our third and youngest child, Christian, is 18 years old today. Wow! Now in my bio I can state with total accuracy that I have three young adult children. I purchased the plastic “Happy Birthday” banner shown here on our oldest’s first birthday, launching a family tradition. Last night as [...]
Heirloom
Arriving in St. Paul last week, I drove directly to the James J. Hill House, a 42-room mansion built in 1891 on a bluff overlooking downtown, to visit an heirloom. I love historic sites and was quite entranced with this one when my son Michael and I toured it during [...]
Prayer for Listening
This prayer was shared as the opening prayer at a board meeting I attended last week. It was credited to a Canadian Jesuit named John Veltri SJ (who died in 2008) but his website says the source is unknown. I like how this prayer gently points to the many levels [...]
With Blessings
A couple friends and I participated in an annual Alternative Gift Fair yesterday as a fundraiser for the food pantry where we all volunteer. We sold gift sets consisting of bean soup and cornbread mixes in a jar and also accepted direct contributions, providing a certificate for use in presenting [...]
Gingko Rain
This morning we awoke to an early light snow that created an unusual juxtaposition of autumn and winter, at least in our back yard where several trees stubbornly cling to most of their leaves. Passing through the family room en route to refilling my coffee, I noticed the gingko leaves [...]
Round of Life
For the ancient Celts, the year began on November 1, as the light gradually diminished to winter’s darkness. It was to them the “thinnest” period of the year, when the veil between time and eternity could be transparent. My Celtic ancestry seems to awaken in late October to relish this [...]
A Daughter Turns 20
Already in 2013 I have marked on this blog the day my mother would have been 80, the day I turned 50, and now today we celebrate our daughter’s 20th birthday. I rather like the symmetry of those 30-year intervals. They suggest a connecting pattern between the three of us [...]
Soul Nourishment
With our three kids nearly grown, in occasional moments of nostalgia I'll longingly remark to my husband, “I wish I could go back and visit their early childhood for a day or an hour, just for a little while, to savor it again.” Of course that is impossible, but hosting [...]
Food Pantry as Prism
Several new folks have come aboard recently at the pantry where I volunteer on Wednesday afternoons. While one of the women observed, I demonstrated the role of shopping assistant with the first patron of the day, explaining to the first patron of the day how many vegetables, grains, fruits, etc., [...]
Yahrzeit — An Anniversary of Death
Yesterday was the third anniversary of my mother-in-law, Ruth's, death, and I had previously decided to mark it as a personal feast day. "Yahrzeit" is the Jewish term for this occasion, typically observed according to the Hebrew calendar. Their practices include lighting a candle at home, attending synagogue services, visiting [...]
Montessori Lessons for Life
Our youngest just departed for his first day of senior year in high school! Early this morning, I found myself recollecting his early days of Montessori preschool, thinking fondly of his teacher, and remembered the piece below, which I wrote in May 2002 as he finished kindergarten. Re-reading it now, [...]
Day of Contentment
I'm 50 years old, today. There! I said it. I always love my birthday, but this particular milestone has been giving me pause -- it sounds so much older than I think of myself being. Because of the imminent start of school and my older kids' returns to college, we [...]
Peace of the Running Wave
Acting on a whim one dreary morning last March, I booked four nights at a bed-and-breakfast in Saugatuck, MI, just for Joe and me, our first-ever real vacation without the kids. On a family trip here two years ago, I had fallen in love with Oval Beach, and my heart’s [...]
Celebration of Learning
I attended the final class in the two-year Melton Jewish Learning core program last week, and this Sunday afternoon there's a graduation ceremony to mark the conclusion. I am inordinately excited about this! A while ago I got the idea to purchase a Jewish-themed article for myself when I completed [...]
Call Me Al
My heart is filled with joy and gratitude at the conclusion of my father's funeral rites today. The visitation last evening brought many fond reminiscences, and it was so gratifying to hear how others valued my dad through the years. This morning's funeral liturgy was just beautiful in every way, [...]
Father’s Day 2013
This piece became even more meaningful after my dad's death two days after the events described here. The usual tremor of anxiety accompanies arrival at the nursing home. Parking the car, signing in, marks a crossing into the unknown. Will you be sleeping? Wandering about? Staring at the television? Once [...]
Making Memories
This week we moved my father from an assisted living to a skilled nursing facility, and the process was not unlike sending a kid to camp or off to college -- making sure he brings the proper supplies and clothing and that each is labeled with his name, acquiring decorative [...]
Farm Farewell
“I will stay until the wind changes,” says Mary Poppins, with typical aplomb, when the Banks children beg her never to leave. I love this scene in the movie. This exchange between Mary Poppins and the children springs to mind whenever I make a decision that surprises me even though [...]
Sand and Sacrament
Every now and then, a reminder of my strong affinity for the principle of sacramentality – the idea that all of reality can be the bearer of God’s presence or action – affirms how irrevocably Catholic I am. Beyond the official seven sacraments, the mystery of God can be discovered [...]
Household Goddesses
The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center turned out to be even more captivating than I expected; perhaps I had become a bit blase about the history and culture after nearly two years of adult education classes on Judaism. The complete Dead Sea Scrolls collection consists of [...]
Ready From Within
The recent centennial of Rosa Parks’ birth evoked for me a lesser known but also highly influential woman of the civil rights movement. South Carolina native Septima Clark has been called “Freedom’s Teacher” because of her role in educating others for action, and her example remains relevant today. I became [...]
Guest Posting about Befriending the Darkness
What does high school swimming have to do with prayer? For me there's a connection! I am honored that my guest post on the theme of "nurturing your mothering spirit" appears today over at the mothering spirit blog. When the topic was proposed, my thoughts immediately turned to solo winter [...]
In Search of Simplicity
I chose not to make 2013 New Year’s resolutions per se, though I did spend significant time reflecting on the year just ended and how to foster growth and change in the year ahead. For me it all boils down to how to allocate my time at a more fundamental [...]
Tradition and Change at Christmas — Part 2
I was not expecting a second part when I wrote my earlier post about simplifying our Christmas decorating a bit now that our children are increasingly away from home. Adapting to changing circumstances by doing less actually brought more satisfaction with the holiday, we discovered. Conversely, our daughter’s brief return [...]
Tradition and Change at Christmas
Creating and adhering to family traditions has been significant to our life as parents. Joe and I both are people who treasure tradition, so it came naturally to us to anchor our family holiday celebrations in meaningful practices. The word "tradition" seems synonymous with "unchanging," but as I look back [...]
Grieving for Newtown
Though very tired, I am unable to sleep for thinking about the families in Newtown, CT, especially the parents of the children who were killed. I first heard the news in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel at O’Hare Airport in Chicago while in line to check in. Relieved to [...]
In the Sukkah
Blessed are you, Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to dwell in the sukkah. Amen. Blessed are you, Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season. [...]
Building a Sukkah
After the ingathering from your threshing floor and your vat, you shall hold the Feast of Booths for seven days . . . for the Lord your God will bless all your crops and all your undertakings, and you shall have nothing but joy. (Deut. 16: 13-17) You shall live [...]
Come to the Water
We spent the second part of our recent vacation at Rehoboth Beach, DE, enjoying the continued hospitality of my dear classmate. The Atlantic itself is an old friend who we have not visited in some time, though for close to a decade it was an annual trip. I find ocean [...]
Political Inspiration
As the intense campaign season looms on the horizon for the fall, I want to keep hold of the inspiration I felt during our summer trip to Washington, DC, from which we just returned. A bit of idealism is a good thing! Our nation’s capital has always been magical to [...]
Stay or Go?
I continue to replay a conversation I had last evening with the mother of my daughter’s friend, at the friend’s graduation party. I do not know this family all that well and hadn’t realized they aren’t Catholic, yet I felt a certain kinship as we talked when it became clear [...]
Welcome the Stranger
When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Lev. 19: 33-34) This passage became [...]
A Day Both Happy and Sad
Bittersweet is surely the word when one’s child graduates from high school. It is truly happy and sad at the same time. Our daughter, Kieran, graduated from St. Ursula Academy yesterday, and in what proved an odd juxtaposition of events, en route to the ceremony she and I stopped by [...]
Who Taught You About Love?
Preaching on the topic of love, our pastor once related his experience of a scripture discussion group during which the participants contemplated who had taught them about love. It’s interesting to notice your first, intuitive response to that question: Who taught you about love? Who pops to mind? For me, [...]
Proclaiming Mother’s Day
I love Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation. Her timeless sentiments call women to action as women but without romanticizing “feminine gifts." That alone is an occasion to celebrate! Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of [...]
Eat Cake!
I didn’t realize that Sunday would be a “3-cake day” until my daughter pointed it out when we returned from church. We had just been served cake designed in the shape of our church to mark the parish’s 85th birthday, kicking off a series of anniversary events. She was anticipating the [...]
On Pilgrimage in St. Louis
The city of St. Louis and Saint Louis University (SLU) in particular have been important touchstones for me since the mid-1980s when as a college student I participated in a SLU study abroad program in France. Dear friendships with then-SLU students Laura and Denise led to many visits to St. [...]
Lessons from St. Nicholas
I spent part of yesterday afternoon decorating the St. Nicholas cookies for today’s feast with a pastry “gun.’ As I painstakingly drew the cross on his miter and outlined the curve of his crozier with frosting, I wondered why, exactly, his feast means so much to me when present-day images [...]
Radium Girls
I always look forward to seeing Kieran and Christian perform in plays, and this fall’s production at St. Ursula is no exception. However, with Radium Girls, a slight feeling of dread mixed with the anticipation as opening night approached. The subject matter is not easy. Set in the 1920s and [...]
Remembering September 11, 2001
Every year at this time, I recollect what a perfectly beautiful September day it was. Driving my children to school that morning, I remember feeling grateful that the academic year had settled into a positive routine, especially for our youngest starting full-day kindergarten. The blue, blue sky affirmed that all [...]
Art Illuminating the Spirit
This post’s title comes from the tagline for the Loyola University Museum of Art, a small museum hidden in plain sight off Michigan Avenue at the Water Tower in downtown Chicago. The phrase succinctly expresses the museum’s mission to explore and promote the spiritual in art of all faiths. While [...]
Blueberry Blessings
I wrote this essay in 2006 or 2007, and a version of it appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Blueberries are the quintessential symbol of summer to me. Just as the season hits its full swing, these blue gems reach their perfect state of plumpness and taste sweet with just a [...]
Drawing on Maternal Strength
By Samuraijohnny via Flickr, Creative Commons license A friend is having a double mastectomy tomorrow, and last Sunday she was anointed in a brief but powerful ritual. That afternoon, changing clothes before heading to the church, with intention I reached for a certain spiritually significant necklace. It’s descended [...]
Our 20th Wedding Anniversary
Joe and Peg, March 16, 1991 Today Joe and I celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. China being the traditional gift on this anniversary, tonight we will dine on our seldom used good dishes, and for dessert I am making our now customary raspberry bride’s cake from the Cake [...]
To Bring Forth Children
Nineteen years ago today at 5:54 am, I became a mother for the first time. Intermittent contractions had begun early in the previous morning, so to encourage labor Joe and I took a long walk up and down hills through our urban Cincinnati neighborhood of Walnut Hills. It was unseasonably [...]
Flowers for Natalie
Last November 20, my daughter Kieran called me right after I dropped her off at school to tell me that Natalie, an ’09 grad of St. Ursula, had died at 6:30 a.m. Since learning the previous evening of Natalie’s severe leukemia relapse and the inability to treat it, Kieran and [...]
All the Saints
The custom of remembering the dead during November as the leaves turn and the light fades, continues to resonate from my Catholic background. To observe this time of year, my husband and I like to recollect our personal saints through a pilgrimage to local cemeteries where our relatives are buried, [...]
From the Ashes
A palpable sense of history left an indelible mark on my first trip to the Ursuline sisters’ motherhouse in rural St. Martin, OH, as a high school student on retreat. I attended their girls’ academy in suburban Cincinnati, so the nuns’ heritage 50 miles east meant little to me until [...]