I’ve been telling some version of my story for almost eleven years. Give or take, that’s about a fifth of my life. It’s been a profession, a part-time career really, speaking to groups of varying size, charities, associations, investment banks, lecture series, insurance companies, hospitals and medical professionals, ladies lunches, country clubs, ...
“Leash your dog!” The command bellowed across the golf course where a willowy man in a puff jacket brought a giant black beast of a dog to heel. Disoriented, my head snapped up as our two little dogs ran excitedly forward. The man struck a baronial pose in the distance. His canine’s head was almost chest level. “Do you hear me?” The frigid January ...
Val Haller was always the cool kid on the block. Literally. With four young boys and a backyard ice rink, Val’s house was where kids and adults congregated, like a giant tailgate party. Twenty years later, Val’s house is still the place to be, but for altogether different reasons. I’ll get to that in a moment. Our family lived down the street and ...
Early summer morning, low clouds spitting rain. My girls are running late for work again. They’ve been lolly-gagging in the bathroom and we need to be on the road to the local market, where they’re getting their first taste of earning an honest wage. I wear my “annoyed face” as they scurry to the car, but secretly, I’m proud of them. They’ve been ...
Long ago, I determined that if my house ever caught fire, the one thing I would grab would be my photo albums. Everything else, I reasoned, was replaceable. But life’s memories? Impossible. Tragic. Re-organizing the basement this summer, I opened a Tupperware container of mementos and immediately smelled danger. Not smoke or fire, thank goodness, ...