Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Category: Edges of a Thing
Stitching Little Stitches
Yesterday was haircut day for Paulina, our about to be five-year-old granddaughter who lives with us. Long hair is a lice magnet I’ve been told and we can’t have that. Especially with school starting and all the little heads. I know my way around… Continue Reading “Stitching Little Stitches”
I Didn’t Want to but I Had to Answer this One
I don’t really want to answer this question but if I do, maybe it will quit haunting me. The last time I saw my daughter alive, I was standing in the doorway of her hospital room, itching to leave because my husband and I… Continue Reading “I Didn’t Want to but I Had to Answer this One”
Happy Showed Up and Wants to be Friends
We bought our Neighbor Pete tamales, rice and beans, chips and pico de gallo, churros, two kinds of Mexican beer, Pacifico and Dos Equis, four ears of today-picked corn, freshly roasted Hatch chile peppers and an avocado. Also, flowers, including a couple of sun… Continue Reading “Happy Showed Up and Wants to be Friends”
Snippets in a Bowl of Marbles
I put together sixty-seven of my 100-word stories into a chapbook called Snippets. A graphic artist whom I’ve known for close to fifty years created the cover and then carefully laid out the stories. This is harder than one might think because of how… Continue Reading “Snippets in a Bowl of Marbles”
Checking Worries Off My List
My daughter dying in a foreign country. I’m free from this worry because she died here – in the United States instead of in Nicaragua where she had been living. Could I be any more macabre? This morning on the back porch, I said… Continue Reading “Checking Worries Off My List”
Today at the Playground and Afterward: Grief Tunes
After a great sand-filled, barefoot, pants wet from the rain on the slide visit to the playground, my granddaughter hurt her finger somehow getting into the car. She told me her finger was broken and she started to cry. We drove out of the… Continue Reading “Today at the Playground and Afterward: Grief Tunes”
Jumbled is What’s for Dinner
I know a few people who’ve lost their adult children. But I only know one who became a guardian of a very young child as a result. And I saw her yesterday in a coffee shop where I was meeting with a colleague about… Continue Reading “Jumbled is What’s for Dinner”
I Think This is What Grief Looks Like
What are the ten thousand things you’ve done wrong?Is there a list? Did you keep a list? It’s not too late to compile.You could leave room for more, the list can be open-ended, just set another place at the table. Runners wear weighted vests.They… Continue Reading “I Think This is What Grief Looks Like”
Tiny Steps in Some Direction
My petunias are getting leggy. This is always the time of the year when they get leggy and I turn again them, resent their not keeping themselves thick and lush. I would have to sit out there on the front porch for three hours… Continue Reading “Tiny Steps in Some Direction”
My New Learning Curve
Well, today I learned that if you buy a $39, nuclear weapons protection grade, red birdfeeder that requires each bird to create a unique registration number not shared with any other bird in order to partake of any seeds, then the squirrels will suddenly… Continue Reading “My New Learning Curve”
Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
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