Category: Personal Histories

  •   Today I went to a friend's Facebook page to wish her a happy 90th birthday, and that's how I found out author/artist Frances Nail passed away, sometime before Christmas. So she probably didn't see the note I scrawled on my Christmas card to her…"I hope to see you in the coming year!" If she did,…

  • The last home we bought (and later sold) was a foreclosure. We first lost it in an open HUD auction, but later won it by sealed bid.The home had been stripped of everything that could be removed – light fixtures, switch-plates, you name it. Even the carpet was ripped up in most of the house. …

  •     Tomorrow is my cousin Patricia's birthday. She's always held a special place in my heart, beginning when she was a teenager. Unlike some of my other teenage cousins, she was consistently nice to me when we went to visit, even though I was a brat. I haven't forgotten. Her dad was one of…

  • Tuesday I drove to Houston for a reunion of the DuPont Deer Park Old Farts Club, an exclusive group of people who helped start-up the DuPont Syngas/Methanol plant and worked there in its infancy. I was part of the second group of plant technicians to be hired (#43) in November of 1978, when the plant…

  • Tomorrow is going to be a day of transition, of goodbyes and new beginnings. I'm traveling to Houston and bringing my mother back here to live in a nursing home minutes from my house. Except for occasional weekends in her house – my childhood home – she has been living in a nursing home near…

  • "May your coming year overflow with love and blessings and wishes come true!" Last year I wrote that in my oldest child's birthday post, in honor of his 27th birthday. A few months later he married the love of his life, honeymooned in Italy, and bought a home in a city he loves. My wish…

  • http://ads.blogherads.com/65/6567/campaigns/14/1426/1426662/x90.js   The index card is yellow and splotched, the ink faded, but considering all of the action it's seen over the past twenty years, it's amazing it's still around at all, much less legible. When not in use, I keep it tucked in a small recipe box with other favorites, mostly one-pan wonders where…

  • Today is my beautiful Mama's birthday. Soon I'll be on my way to Houston to celebrate another year of having her in my life. I hope the coming year will be full of laughter and happiness for her. She's been through so many changes this past year, the toughest being having to say goodbye to…

  • "Lord, if your people need me, I will not refuse the work. Your will be done." ~St. Martin of Tours     My big brother Buster was headed to Viet Nam, saying his goodbyes, when I stood beside him in this photograph and smiled. I had no idea what was ahead of him. This was…

  • "Reinvention" is the theme for Generation Fabulous's blog hop this month. Considering I just started a new career as a realtor, seemingly out of the blue, "reinvention" is right up my alley. Or is it? Can it be considered "reinvention" if it's something you once loved, and spent hours doing, long ago? You see, when…