In response to last week’s post, my friend Dave wrote, All are hard, but in many ways, sedimentary grief is worse than igneous or metamorphic because it’s less stable, less predictable, and less...

“Her mind can no longer hold her secrets.” My friend Stephanie said that, after I’d told a story from the past, released by my mother’s mind. The walls are coming down. When my next-door neighbor...

In the balance of task versus relationship, I err on the side of task. I had to train myself to greet colleagues before launching into work stuff. I leave out the context. In my writing, I omit...

Well, apparently I didn’t send an email last Sunday. I believed I did. When Claire texted, asking if she had missed it, I replied it had gone out and that I’d check the system to see why she hadn’t...

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea. —Isak Dinesen Sometimes, all three. As for Mom, her hip is healing well and her surgeon is pleased. But her confusion has increased. On...

It’s an entire generation. Her friends who have become my friends. Eileen, who moved to assisted living first. Marge, who moved to assisted last. Mary, the woman down the hall from my mom’s old...