Mom died on February 25th. Her funeral was in Utica, New York; yesterday was her memorial service. This is the eulogy I wrote and read yesterday. Eulogy II The first Tuesday after Mom’s funeral, I woke up and, because it has been part of my waking-up ritual for what seems like forever (even though it … Continue reading Death: the most unlikely of happy endings or ‘Bossiest Eulogy Ever’
Tag: families
When Debbie Friedman died four years ago, the whole Jewish world stood up and paid attention. I’d been paying attention to Debbie my whole life, because she was nine when I was born and our mothers are sisters. That first year after she died, pictures kept showing up on Facebook, synagogues were singing her songs … Continue reading Debbie Friedman, number eight of Bubby & Zaydie’s 15
I used to write poetry. It’s been a long time, but lately, I’ve had an urge to start again. So it was interesting timing that my Christmas present from Sweetheart’s father and his wife was a volume of Seamus Heaney’s poetry. There are massive holes in my literary education. Heaney was one of them, but thanks … Continue reading Kelly Cherry, poetry and Mr. Perfect from the Neck Down
Like most working people in the US, where Christian culture is majority culture, I’d been looking forward to a couple of days off at Christmas. It’s not my holiday. But I get to partake of its best parts because Sweetheart’s family is a mashup of Lutherans, atheists who grew up as Lutherans & Catholics-by-choice. Sweetheart … Continue reading ‘I’m not big on long goodbyes’ or Death at Christmas
the sentence factory 