Category: Family

When I graduated from college in 1969 I decided it was time to send my own Christmas cards. It sounded like a grown-up thing to do. I bought something manly.  I avoided cards that featured poinsettias or Christmas trees.  No pictures of wrapped packages, Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or mistletoe …

My mom and dad’s seventy-fifth wedding anniversary was yesterday.  I expect they danced in heaven, and after they danced they probably played cards with my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Harry.  There was undoubtedly a big dinner (Dad would have insisted.)  with the whole extended family to celebrate this diamond jubilee.  And after that they – …

The United States entered World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  My dad was already in the service having enlisted on January 21. He planned to be discharged after one year of service in January of 1942.  The declaration of war altered his plans. Dad was assigned to Fort …

I’ve run across several ways to keep track of a family’s growth on-line.  People have come up with several creative ways to track all sorts of things.  I saw one father who took a picture of his daughter everyday for the first year of her life.  Another took a picture each week until the day …

Eva “turned” 13 yesterday, and that’s what the day she was born seems like, yesterday.  We all gathered for her birth.  The day was scheduled in advance, so even Uncle Mike could make the trip from California to be on hand like he had two years prior when Brady was born. Her birth was uneventful.  …

Back in the day when a child was born you got what you got.  Each birth was a surprise.  No one knew in advance if they were having a boy or a girl. I recall how disappointed I was when our neighbor, Polly, told me my mom and dad went to the hospital to get …

The summer of 2020 has been challenging for everyone. We’ve been asked to mask up, wash rinse and repeat, stand six feet apart, and stay home. Ruth and I have followed the directions as prescribed but still managed to keep life interesting.  In June we explored homes in Holland and Saugatuck because two of our …

I got up at 5:30 on Monday morning a couple of weeks ago so I could drive to visit my favorite family of four.  While I knew David would be busily involved with his staff’s first day of school, I had a golf date with Brady and the opportunity to observe my equestrian granddaughter, Eva, …

If you live somewhere long enough you garner thousands of memories.  When we bought our home on Lake LeAnn I thought it was perfect.  We were going to live on a lake and have not one, but two, fireplaces.  We had arrived. Here are a few reflections from our time here. We have experienced sorrow.  …

About five years ago we placed our house on Grand Point Drive up “for sale by owner”. We had purchased a condo just outside Traverse City and considered moving to the Grand Traverse Resort Community. We remodeled a third story walk-up that proved to be too much climbing for me. I had recently completed knee …