If you like to read, this challenge will intrigue you: write a list of the last five books you’ve read. Then consider what your list might mean to someone else. John Warner figures that out in his weekly Chicago Tribune column titled The Biblioracle. From the lists emailed to him, he assesses what the person likes to read—for …
Category: memoir
Tidbits for Writers from the 10th Annual Creative Chicago Expo
Creative. I love the sound of this word. As a child in the forties and fifties, I don't think I ever heard it. In fact, the first emphasis on being creative that I encountered was in the late nineties when I read, then taught, Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Reading Cameron opened my eyes to …
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What do nurses do? Let me count the ways…
Once upon a time, two women in their late sixties met at church and soon became friends. Letty is now 76 and Martha 74. Martha is a widow and moved to Letty’s small town after her retirement and the death of her husband to be near her children. Last week, Letty sent me this email, …
Unwelcome Itchy Visitors
I wish I had something more soothing to write for you today. But last Monday, after a three-day hissy fit of prickly-burning body-wide itching, a dermatologist looked at the tan line on my back and asked, "Where's this tan from? And how long ago did you get it?" “Aruba. Three weeks ago,” I said. "Then …
Finding My Identity in a Dutch Cemetery – Part 3
Even though I didn’t feel Dutch on a 2001 trip to the Netherlands, finding my maiden name, Hoitenga, on tombstones in a Witmarsum cemetery brought me to tears and made my Dutch roots feel real for the first time. Fast forward to a few weeks ago in Aruba. My husband and I briefly met a …
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Finding My Identity in a Dutch Cemetery – Part 2
In Part 1 of this "identity" story, I wrote about finding a cemetery surrounding a church in Witmarsum, the town where my great grandparents lived in Friesland, The Netherlands. I'd taken along a photo of a distant relative taken outside the church in 1947. I posed for a picture in the same spot. Exciting! Note …
Continue reading Finding My Identity in a Dutch Cemetery – Part 2
Finding My Identity in a Dutch Cemetery
I'm off to Aruba this week (see my header, the palm trees beckon), but come along with me on a story I wrote in 2001 about a trip we made to the Netherlands. I've been noticing on my WordPress stats page lately that I've had a steady flow of readers from there (welcome!), and I'm …
Aging Gracefully at Seventy
When I first read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in 1970, I cried with relief. Friedan had interviewed suburban housewives and found many were not fulfilled as homemakers. That was me. And like others in these first waves of feminism, I, after some painful soul-searching (chapters 5 and 6 in Caring Lessons), ventured out of …
Another year is dawning…
When I was a child living in a parsonage, we attended church services on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Imagine how we felt as kids when these holidays fell near a Sunday. Because we also attended morning and evening Sunday services, we would joke about just staying in our Sunday dresses and camping …
A shout out today for Becky Povich!
From Pigtails to Chin Hairs: A Memoir and More is the captivating title of blogger and humorist Becky Povich's new book. As a fellow writer and blogging friend, I'm thrilled she's made it this far and am happy to support her in her next goal of getting her book published. If you recall my story …
Write Along with Me 