The Other “F” Word by Donna Scrafano I hope the title of this article didn’t get anyone’s bottoms in a bunch. This title flew out of my mouth while meeting with a client, approximately twenty years ago. The client was sharing her stories about abuse suffered by her family of origin. The client processed her Read more
Harlander: Never Forget by Angie Littlefield As Silver Sagers, we have come to know multiple generations of people in our lives—those who preceded us, ourselves, and those who have followed us. And it is especially crucial to understand what came before us, so that we can inform our children and grandchildren about the realities of Read more
Rescue by A. Laura Francis Any shrink worth their salt would probably have a field day if their patient told them that they would be travelling halfway across the country to fetch their twenty-year-old son from university with their mother-in-law driving shotgun. But when COVID numbers began to creep up in March of last year Read more
The Perfect Pandemic Wedding by Donna Scrafano Two years before the pandemic, my granddaughter, Mariah, and her fiancé, Chris, began planning their wedding. Their first thought was to have a destination wedding in Jamaica. After several family meetings and many discussions, however, they decided that a destination wedding would be too complicated for some family Read more
And Just Like That . . . I’m a Great-grandmother by Donna Scrafano When I would hear someone say “time flies” as a younger person, I didn’t pay much attention. In fact, I don’t believe I paid close attention to this adage until my late fifties. By then I had my first five grandchildren. In Read more
Cross-Country, COVID-19, and Sweet Lemonade Part 4: Heading Home by Christina Fain Our route home would not be I-70. We decided that, “since we were in the neighborhood,” we would take in a few more sights using a more northerly route. With a little stab of disappointment, we drove our way through Wyoming in complete Read more
Textbook Hearts by Christina Fain I had an interesting discussion with my seven-year-old daughter recently. She said she didn’t get it when people say to her, “You have a good heart.” She didn’t understand and told me as a matter of fact “but we all have the same heart” and then drew me a picture Read more
Love in the Time of COVID: How to Celebrate Valentine’s Day Safely by Lucy E.M. Black It’s approaching that time of year when many of us acknowledge the special people in our lives by giving them Valentine’s Day cards, organizing small celebrations, or preparing other small loving gestures. This is yet one more occasion, unfortunately, Read more
15 Social Protocols for the Working World by Lucy E.M. Black As a writer of historical fiction, I am happy to own Social Etiquette: or Manners and Customs of Polite Society, published in 1878.* Books like this serve me well as useful references for nineteenth-century life, and, while some chapters of this book are obscure Read more
Planning Holidays In a Pandemic by Donna Scrafano Like everything else under pandemic restrictions, holidays have been and will continue to be celebrated differently in my family. When the world shut down in March, everyone seemed to be scrambling about trying to figure out how to live their daily lives. Holidays were not the main Read more
