It won't be long now. We’re about to lose our dad for the second time. We lost him the first time on June 1, 2005. That morning as he prayed with my mom—as he did every morning before the day got going—he suffered a massive stroke that robbed him of a great deal of cognitive…
Tomorrow my friend Sarah will bury her husband, the first of my peer group to do so. And while she and I haven’t had much contact in the half-decade since I moved to a different state, Sarah will always be a special friend. When the devastating news of her loss reached me on Wednesday morning,…
The face value of my dad’s gift was only one dollar and thirty-nine cents, hardly a fortune and barely even a gift. But it was a treasure from the man I have loved all my life to the man I will love for the rest of my life. The recipient of the one-dollar coin and…
Reposting today in memory of my friend Tim, who met Jesus last night, and shortly thereafter, I’m sure, was reunited with his dearly loved wife, Judy. The original post was written in September 2015, and at the time, I was pretty sure I’d never see Tim again this side of the new earth, and if…
My dad and I stood at the double doors to the sanctuary, waiting for twelve bells to chime and the doors to swing open. Looking at me, he said, “I’ve waited a long time for this day,” and I said, “Me, too, Dad. Me, too.” What I didn’t say—because I would have come undone—is that…
In one of my moves since amassing a library, my sister hefted a box across the room and asked, “What’s in here?! Bricks??” I think the answer to her question with respect to that particular box was “no,” but she was onto something about me: I do, actually, move bricks from one residence to the…
Tomorrow I will attend my home church, as I typically do when I visit my parents for the weekend. With coffee cup in hand, I will make the rounds—hugging old (literally and metaphorically) friends and giving them the sweetened condensed version of how life presently is. Time will allow a few friends to linger longer,…
A few weeks ago my oldest sister had the idea that we girls should help Mom sort through her sewing room. For five or six decades, Mom has saved and stored supplies left over from craft projects, intending to repurpose them Someday. The result of all this packratting was a 10x11 room, walled with shelves…
On a spring weekend more than four years ago, I made an impromptu trip home to Milwaukee. Impromptu trips were fairly common during the years I lived in Madison, since it was an easy 90-minute drive with no Chicago traffic in sight. But this trip had a special purpose. Word had just come that one…
When I passed my PhD exams in 2008, I took a much-needed vacation before launching fulltime dissertation work. My travels took me to see some old college friends in Knoxville, Tennessee, and while their presence would have been more than enough balm for a weary soul, the trip had a bonus balm in the person…
