“Mourning doesn’t come all at once,” I remind myself. I’ve been up and at it for a couple of hours. Had my coffee, made the beds, did the left over dishes, sorted through the mail. I am on my second load of laundry, sitting in front of the dryer folding. I am pulling at a… Continue reading Mourning Doily
Category: Higher Ground
Palms
It’s hard to picture the LA she grew up in. Bungalow apartments built around a courtyard with a big central lawn dotted with palm trees. She knew all of her immediate neighbors. The kids all congregated together at various yards and houses to play. It was a comforting existence. She knew where her grandmother lived… Continue reading Palms
Down in the Splits, Up in a Backbend
She had taken many dance classes over the years: tap, ballet, Hawaiian, jazz, African Haitian, but her true love was modern. She got to class a half hour early, do one hundred crunches, stretch, and be totally warmed up before one of the goddesses (as she called the instructors) came in to teach the… Continue reading Down in the Splits, Up in a Backbend
That Carrie Moment
She was beautiful, ripe as a peach in mid-summer with luscious willing lips and long reddish blond hair. Mothers with sons worried. They talked among themselves. They knew how vulnerable their boys were to the wiles of a free spirited young girl. “He’s not going out with that Wild Jane, is he?” “Oh boy, you… Continue reading That Carrie Moment
Old Maid
It hadn’t been an easy life for Frankie. Considered an old maid at the age of nineteen with no prospects, she was given a one way ticket from Oregon to Palms, California to meet her new husband. She was a good Christian girl with skills in all the home arts. She could cook, sew, rig… Continue reading Old Maid