A Mother’s Day Tribute (on a four-wheeler)

I wrote this in 2008, a year after our mother passed away. It seems a fitting tribute to publish it this year for Mother’s Day, looking back on that first summer without her, when our kids were so little and we were figuring out this motherhood thing all by ourselves. We know she’d laugh.~ We […]

Hauling wood with Dad

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from my work-in-progress — a novel about losing my mom and finding her again, leaving home and going back and about childhood. The parts like this, about my lovable swearing father, made me laugh when I wrote them and repeat them to my friends as long as they would […]

Motherhood: Four wheeler love

The four-wheeler is like a fifth member of the family around here. We ride it almost every day, the earth holding us up lap after lap as we wear trails in the field and through the trees. Riding the four-wheeler is one of the few things the boys and I can agree upon. They seem […]

Four-wheeler therapy: A true story (don’t tell dad)

Here’s a piece I wrote the second summer after losing my mom. It’s a true story, but don’t tell Dad. Four-Wheeler Therapy Pearl’s sister broke out the cherry wine somewhere between the juice boxes and bologna sandwiches. “Dare we?” Sherry asked. Pearl hated wine. So did her sister. Pearl cut a sandwich in half for […]