Festivities started in March with Shannon in Lahaina Maui…the sound of the ocean putting me to sleep every night. Early June found me in Victoria with pals Jaya and Jill who feted me with many surprises and a cake a day! So much fun…so spoiled! For my actual birthday on June 18—delicious friends and food…
October 4-8/2023 Los Angeles Fourteen and a half hours in the air is some kind of torture!! Florence to Frankfurt to LAX…never again! But I’m here and I’m with my family which makes it all worth while! My son Jesse, daughter-in-law Marthe and two gorgeous granddaughters Franny and Dot! My jet lag has turned me…
September 30-October 4/2023 Italia! Dublin to Milan flight. Shuttle to Milano Centrale where I enjoy a cappuccino and a slice of Torta della Nonna while waiting for my train. Our arrival in Firenze was briefly threatened by a police incident (?) in Bologna, but we got there on time and I ran to meet my…
September 21-29/2023 Arriving in London bleary-eyed at 6.30am—Heathrow is a zoo! So many people. So early in the morning! I take the Heathrow Express into Paddington…another zoo, a sea of briefcases. I drop my suitcase at my hotel—check-in is not until 2 pm. It’s ok…I have a plan. The Tate Modern! I figure out which…
September 8-21/2023 Three Eastern Cities: Toronto, New York, Montreal The beauty of aging cities- the squeak of Toronto subways, the elegant spires atop metal fire escapes in Montreal, crumbling NY underpasses. Don’t get me wrong I love Vancouver..it is my forever home but I appreciate the brick and stone and obvious history of eastern cities…
September 4-8/2023 Via Rail The Canadian-Vancouver to Toronto Tucked into a lower berth in car 215, I lie mesmerized by the train’s motion. Outside the large window, trees stream past…suddenly a mountain…then a waterfall. Early morning I wake, raise the blind…mist floats across a farmer’s field, a lone horse bends its neck, the morning light…
Frogs croaking from the pond down the dusty road. The porch creaks for no good reason. Hot, dry air rustles through bull rushes. Amazing how sharp her hearing is. She can hear every tiny living creature, a bee buzzing in the red, yellow, pink, wild flowers that fill the ditches all along that road. Road…
How does one sum up a life? Is there a thread or a river that runs through it? What links the child, the teen, middle age to…what is this now? Elder, I guess. Do I feel the wisdom of age? I feel the tenderness. The myriad of close encounters—of words and kisses and surprises exchanged….
You had to lean your whole body against the steel bar to open it. The bar was a rectangular slab across the width of the door. You had to lean against it until it pressed in and released the lock. The click was loud and metallic. There was a smell too of metal and cold…
The past seems to be growing, forcing its way up into my throat. Like an earthquake. What was buried is now on the surface, poking into my tender skin. If only our memories were catalogued somewhere on a shelf and we could browse through, like detectives with CCTV footage. Were crimes committed? Were faces turned…
