My Mom’s D-E-V-O-T-I-O-N to Crossword Puzzles

There are constants in life. Like the seven days of the week or the bright green flowers on the wallpaper in my mom’s kitchen or my mom herself, who insisted on correcting my sisters’ and my spelling errors on our letters home from summer camp. She’d i… Continue reading

A Lunch Lesson in Good Fortune

My weekly lunch date gently slides into the passenger seat of my sedan. His thin gray hair is carefully combed, his square jaw and cleft chin are freshly shaven. Before I pull away from the two-story house, my childhood home, I lean over to give my 93-… Continue reading

A Visit to ‘Motherland’

“I have given you everything — You don’t know what I gave up for you…Who else could you possibly have in your life?” Mother and daughter. Rita and Elissa. In her new book, Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing and Longing, Elissa Altman, a James Beard… Continue reading

What I Learned From Being a Stepmother to Young Adults

When I got married for the first time 15 years ago, at 47, people asked me if it was going to be difficult to adjust to marriage because I was “set in my ways” or “used to so much freedom.” Those comments were disturbing, but I shrugged them off as jus… Continue reading

Wedding Dress Reboot: When Your Daughter Wears Your Gown

If you’re a married woman over 50, your wedding dress brings back treasured memories of walking down the aisle and saying “I do.” Most likely your gown has sat untouched for years. And if you have a daughter, you might even dream of her wearing it some… Continue reading

In the Blink of an Eye, Childhood Is Over

Shivering under a blanket, knowing the only bathroom nearby was a Porta Potty, armed with extra tissues and plenty of hand sanitizer, I cheered when my daughter’s team made a goal and groaned when they didn’t. I prayed to the soccer gods that my child … Continue reading