(Editor’s note: Covering LGBTQ issues is an ongoing Next Avenue priority, and this June, during Pride Month, we are publishing a special LGBTQ-focused series, starting with this story.) Chances are, there’s at least one person in your life who identif… Continue reading
“Paula, how old is your mother?” my friend Kathy asked, causing snickers among the other third-graders. “She’s, um, (never pause in the middle of a lie), she’s 39,” I said. “She is not!” Kathy howled, and the group erupted in laughter. I’m a late-in-li… Continue reading
Three-day weekends — not to mention summer vacations — always lend themselves to settling in somewhere sunny with a good book. What will you read? Ask your local bookseller for suggestions and check out the following recommendations from staff members … Continue reading
Part of the VITALITY ARTS SPECIAL REPORT Daffodils — that’s the assignment on a recent evening at “Wet and Wild Watercolors,” a weekly class at The Green Door Art Gallery in a suburb of St. Louis. In a back room, 10 students, including regulars and dr… Continue reading
PART OF THE VITALITY ARTS SPECIAL REPORT It’s long and wide, well-worn and sturdy: a wooden table that, for many years, served as a foundation, while conversations about community, the arts and collaboration flowed around it. At that time, the table he… Continue reading
After 23 years of marriage, I was finished. For the last nine of those years, I’d owned a house with a garden in East Tennessee where I grew herbs, perennials, wildflowers and vegetables. I gathered herbal bouquets and dried flowers. I was a member of … Continue reading
Does age really bring wisdom? Recent studies affirm this adage, showing that older adults are better able to estimate the slope of a hill, recover quickly after making a mistake and use their brains more efficiently than younger adults. For readers of… Continue reading
In fact, Benjamin Dreyer would really prefer that I open this article quite differently. The longtime copy chief at Random House has made a career of helping authors like E.L. Doctorow, Frank Rich and Elizabeth Strout replace such “wan intensifiers” a… Continue reading
Do you think that when we slow down, it’s because we’re aging or because the nature of retired life demands less of us? I ask because, as I near 64, I look with a mix of wonder and bewilderment at the politicians, judges and entertainers who are more t… Continue reading
Mother. Grandmother. Realtor. Baltimore Orioles groupie. These are just four of the roles that the late Thelma Knobel played in the Rowe family of Baltimore. Her daughter, Peggy, recently published a memoir— About My Mother: True Stories of a Horse-Cra… Continue reading