You know the feeling…so focused on doing-doing-doing that bits of your life are scattered from hither to yon, and you wind up chasing them down…sometimes with, well, painful consequences. That’s where this story started, on a day of serial deadlines…. Head-down at my desk, deeply absorbed in a project, I…
Passing by my adopted grandmother’s camellia bush in the side yard the other day, I saw to my surprise that it was blooming – two full, fuschia-pink blossoms and a faded one amid glossy dark leaves on its two long branches. I breathed a deep, unconscious sigh of relief and joy:…
Next Thursday it will be twelve years exactly. For three months my husband had been in the hospital fighting for his life after the placement of a left ventricular assist device – one of the very first experimental models. Problem was – nobody knew that he had MRSA, and worse, nobody knew…
It was a warm October day in a barn-garage near Philly: my cats were commenting loudly on their new boarding quarters as my friend, their temporary host, whispered welcoming reassurances to them. And that was when I saw her: a scrawny little cat, barely past kittenhood, her scruffy fur in…
Three years ago I was faced with a terrible choice. My elder cat Sweetie, who had been on steroidal treatment for late-stage oral cancer, had been responding astoundingly well, with no breakthrough bleeding for a week and a surprising renewal of energy and appetite. But late that Friday evening, I…
It was a scene I never wanted to see as I drove through the urban park that Halloween night: the still form of a deer by the side of the road, a pickup truck parked just beyond, and a man kneeling bent over the prone body. I pulled over and walked…
