Month: May 2008

  • letters from the past

    In 1968, my father developed a respiratory illness that led my parents to decide – once again – to move to the dry heat of Arizona. It was our fourth time in 10 years to pack what we could in the station wagon and small trailer and head west to look for a job, a…

  • nate graduates thanks to joy

    At the time our son finished his bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry at Southern Arkansas University, he toyed with the idea taking the entrance exam for medical school – just to see how he would do. I said I would pay for it, but he told me he really did not like the ‘things…

  • Renewing wedding vows in Hawaii

    All we had to do our first day in Honolulu was rest – and finalize arrangements for renewing our wedding vows. The idea developed shortly before we left on our once-in-a-life-time vacation. I talked it over with the Patti, our daughter-in-love. She and Randy would be celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. Thinking mathematically,…

  • Planes and perfect trip to Hawaii

    It was the perfect vacation that nearly crashed on the runway when Aloha and ATA airlines went belly-up just weeks before our departure. Not sure which airline we had used, I casually mentioned the airlines bankruptcy to my husband after hearing about it on the news. His response was not so casual. We had not…

  • Life and death are in the hands of the holder

    In an old tale, two young men decide to visit the village’s wise old man to ask a question he cannot answer correctly. One held a small bird in his hands. “I am going to ask the old man ‘is this bird dead or alive?’ If he says ‘it is dead,’ I will open my…