“I got the invitation to my friend’s birthday party, Mommy.” “Oh?” My 11-year-old daughter, Margaret hesitated, seeming to withhold information. “What’s up?” I asked. “Well,” she said, dragging the word into two syllables, “it’s a sleepover.” “Okay.” “And . . . ” “And what, Margaret?” “Well, it’s on a Saturday night, but I really want [...]
Grandmama Mitchell didn’t play. She gave birth to eight children. Seven of them grew to be adults; she buried her oldest daughter when little Annie was just eight years old. A couple of decades after that funeral, her husband, my grandfather, died in an automobile accident that very literally shook their town. She sent a [...]
(I’m a member of a small group who supports each other with wellness concerns. Here’s an email I sent to the group last semester.) It’s different in Divinity School. Our Greek prof hands our tests back to us and says, “Okay, now let’s grade these things.” “We are grading our own tests?” “You’re trustworthy aren’t [...]
As a parent volunteer, I have often tutored kids for whom English is a second language. Such was the case a few years ago when I was working with a young Russian boy who was a student at my children’s elementary school. One day, we were working on adjective/noun constructions. He had written a story [...]