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
Home for the Holidays This year, many of our writers and contributors will have a new tradition of sorts for the holidays, no thanks to COVID19. In honor of our fabulous family of writers, I asked them to send a short sentence or two on how they will be spending Thanksgiving this year. Remember that Read more
Turning 50 with My Twin By Jude Joseph Lovell We were there. On a long porch, at night. Isolated from the world. Thick clouds smothering the moon and stars. Wind trampling through the dark trees. Branches snapping in the mist like brittle bones. Night creatures chittering and screeching. There was no fear. We were together. Read more
Intergenerational House Sharing by Donna L. Scrafano Last year, I was forced to make some major, life-changing decisions. My 90-year-old father, whom I was taking care of (and who has since died), was ailing, and his condition was getting worse. So we decided that it was best that he and I live with my daughter Read more
Cross-Country, COVID-19, & Sweet Lemonade Part 2 – Missouri and Kansas by Christina Fain After a pizza and a good night’s rest in St. Louis, we continued west. The Missouri landscape soon began to change from our familiar rolling hills to an ebbing and flowing terrain of green hills settling into miles of flattening fields. Read more
Biggest Culprit to Parents’ Wealth: Family by Tracy E. Hill, Ph.D. The Pennsylvania Department of Aging recently concluded the “Financial Exploitation of Older Adults Study Report” which audited random case files (455) from ten PA Area Agencies on Aging over more than a dozen counties which had reported considerable exploitation (financial) cases three years ago. Read more
Parents’ Day in September by Jude Joseph Lovell September 27 has always been important to my family. It’s my mother’s birthday. This year marks her 81st, and I can report happily that she is going strong. Which isn’t terribly surprising if you know Joanne Lovell. She has never let much grass grow beneath her. But Read more
Love Out Loud By Donna L. Scrafano While we all attempt to survive this pandemic, we can’t deny that life as we once knew it has changed greatly. In addition to picking up groceries or walking into a store with our masks and armor on, we are social distancing from family and friends or not Read more
The Dreadful What-Ifs by Donna L. Scrafano Oh, what we do to ourselves by attempting to anticipate the future! During the years I worked as a Human Services professional, I often advised clients to relieve themselves of the “what-ifs”—those annoying, self-doubting questions of what may or may not happen, questions that cause us to worry Read more
Beautifully Mixed by Donna Scrafano As a young social worker, in the 1980s, I had the grand opportunity to work with a wonderful psychologist. She taught me many valuable lessons. One thing she said continues to resonate in my mind: “God made mixed children extra beautiful because he knew the special challenges they would face.” Read more
