Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Tag: memoir
Be Bright and Beautful
There were long patches of my life when there were no photos. When I was a single mom was one of those times. I had my daughter’s school pictures but there weren’t a lot of other pictures. A few. Her father had been the… Continue Reading “Be Bright and Beautful”
Brad
I just wanted to see Brad’s face in the bus window. If I ran all the way from school and didn’t stop to see things, I could get to our oak tree in time for the school bus to come around the corner. Sometimes… Continue Reading “Brad”
A Long Time Coming
I asked so much of her and I never said thank you. It’s hard to believe looking back like I did today, sorting through hundreds of photos, some so old that they were printed in squares like they were taken with a Brownie camera,… Continue Reading “A Long Time Coming”
Monday’s Dog
We sat on the floor together, holding our big sick dog, the beloved Davey, the dog we had owned as long as we had been married who just that morning had pulled on the leash as we took her for a last walk, and… Continue Reading “Monday’s Dog”
Do the Bold Thing
I’m no stranger to bold things. Two marriages that kind of happened out of the blue. Children we had to go get from a foreign country. Jobs taken and quit. Brinksmanship of varying types. Once, after having been driven to complete madness by a… Continue Reading “Do the Bold Thing”
A Passing
You can know someone for five minutes. But if it’s the right five minutes, you are connected to that person forever. Maybe it’s the man who got stuck in the elevator with you. Or the woman in the next bed over in the days… Continue Reading “A Passing”
Point the Way
I like trees with style. And they’re so rare. We found this one on a short walk on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Years ago, there was a path down the bluff, a road actually that the local police used to surprise midnight partiers,… Continue Reading “Point the Way”
Dear Young Mom
Dear young mom, You look at me and see a grandmother who had her chance. You figure what I could tell you about being a mother would begin and end with a rotary phone. Nothing I know would apply now in this whole different… Continue Reading “Dear Young Mom”
No Strings Attached
I felt sorry for her so I sent her $40. I didn’t really have 40 extra dollars because I was only making $5.70 an hour then. Forty bucks represented nearly a whole day’s work, several tanks of gas, a week’s worth of groceries. It… Continue Reading “No Strings Attached”
What’s Fair Game?
An essay I wrote about a former lover is being published in an anthology called Precipice. In the essay, I use the person’s actual first name because, when I wrote it, no other name seemed a good substitute. And the story I told isn’t… Continue Reading “What’s Fair Game?”
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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