On January 1, 1997, I was busy with meal preparations. We’d invited several friends over to celebrate the new year and were cooking an Italian recipe that had been handed down from my husband’s grandmother. The phone interrupted our preparations and the friend on the other end announced, “We won’t be able to come to…
I became a mother for the first time in Russia. On our final night in the country, we stayed at a hotel in Moscow where I met a woman named Olga. She was happy to practice her English, and I was bubbling over with excitement…
The phone call came around 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. It seemed odd that my midwife would be calling so late in the day when I had an appointment early the next week to discuss ultrasound results. My curiosity got the better of me,…
Years ago, a friend told me how much she enjoyed volunteering at an after-school drama program. She marveled that there were so many children there who never had a family member show up to a performance. Now that we have kids in Little League, I’m…
“Thank you,” she said, giving me a hug. “That was the best advice anyone has ever given me.” She wiped the tears that had fallen onto her cheeks, squared her shoulders and walked back into the hospital room to stand at the side of her…
I wrote this some time ago, I don’t recall exactly when. It was sometime when life seemed consumed with pain and uncertainty. A time when the very earth beneath me seemed to have turned to quicksand. I was falling, falling into darkness and I could…
