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Sept. 5 was a day I hoped would never come. That Thursday, my husband Tym died. Over the course of a year, he had experienced a progressive weakness and shortness of breath. He lost a lot of weight. There was no diagnosis until Aug. 28, when we learned that he had ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. Since there’s no cure, …
For those of you who haven’t traded for a new vehicle lately, I have news for you: There are no CD players. Zero. Zip. Nada. I learned this ugly truth last fall after purchasing a new Equinox and transferred my paraphernalia to the new vehicle. Sadly, there was no need to move my CD collection because Chevrolet discontinued CD players …
Many of you know that Tym and I aren’t from around here. We grew up in Shelby County, Illinois, a farming community halfway up the trunk of Illinois. Leaving family behind in your home state means the burden of visiting has always been on us—the leavers, not the leavees. Let’s say we’ve come to know the road well: 40 West …
Yes, it’s true. My great-grandmother Sarah McGuirk was an orphan sent by rail from New York City to live with a farm family in Piatt County, IL in 1860. I’ll be talking about her Wednesday, Aug. 14 at the Museum of History in downtown Newton. The Newcomers of Catawba County have invited me to present my talk as a Road …
If there’s one thing writers like to do, it’s talk. All those hours of solitude leave us hungry for live dialog. That was evident at a recent writers’ conference in Virginia. I had breakfast with two strangers—a man from Philadelphia and a woman from Roanoke, VA. Of course the topic came around to—what else—politics. I expressed was how unpleasant—maybe dangerous—it …
The chance of losing something is directly proportional to its value. Say you have a $50 bill and the picture of a $50 bill on a piece of junk mail. Which one do you think will get lost? OK, it wasn’t actual money. It was a $25 gift certificate printed from the Blue Cross/Blue Shield website. I printed out the …
Ah summer! There’s something about this overheated time of year that makes us shift gears and relish the season and remember good stuff when we were kids. I’m no exception. For me, summer is: 1. Fresh-squeezed lemonade. 2. Snacks in a picnic cooler. 3. Reading a paperback novel under a beach umbrella. 4. The aroma of coconut oil. 5. Carnival …
Forty years ago my husband Tym and I moved to Catawba County. We had both grown up in in rural Illinois, a land platted in a grid. Directions were given by the compass. Go a mile north, turn left and go three miles west. But in this booming place with a gentler climate, we learned that locals navigate by where …
On May 26, I joined a small crowd at the Memorial Day ceremony in Eastview Cemetery in Newton, NC. I hadn’t been to such a ceremony in several years, and for me, it was a solid reminder of the phrase “freedom isn’t free.” We honored American service men and women for their sacrifice in the line of duty. There was …
There’s often something funny about the unexpected. One morning, I opened the refrigerator, as usual. Suddenly the entire door came off its hinges. Bottles of jam, salad dressings, drinks and condiments came crashing to the floor. My bare foot was in inches of being crushed. Luckily, none of the glass broke and my husband was home to help lift the …