Recently I spent a day in the ER. I had a Zoom book club meeting the day before and was eating a tuna fish sandwich as I sat at my computer chatting with my book club friends. I made the tuna salad myself and in fact my husband was eating it downstairs while I was upstairs Zooming, and he later told me he thought it tasted fine. But it tasted off to me, and a few hours later I felt sick to my stomach and that night spent more hours in the bathroom than in bed. The next morning I still...
In March 2020 on the cusp of the Covid pandemic my husband was scheduled for surgery, but the prospect of him spending even a few days in a large New York hospital was worrisome. Luckily the doctor discharged him one day post-op, I took him home, and the next day we left Manhattan and drove to rural Connecticut to what had been – until then – our weekend house. Thus we began our Covid quarantine as full-time country folks, and in fact we didn’t return to the city for over...
Going to birthday parties has always been great fun for kids. When I was young I’d wear a pretty party dress and my mother would take me to the birthday kid’s house, with me proudly carrying the wrapped gift. Then we’d put on paper hats, play games, and eat cake and ice cream while the celebrant’s father took home movies as we shyly waved at the camera. A generation later things were quite different. The birthday parties I took my son to were usually themed...
My father – six years older than my mother – died in his early 80s. (See My Dad) My mom, who it seemed had never been sick a day in her life, developed a heart condition after he died and survived him by less than three years. (See My Game Mother, Still Life and Fluffy and the Alligator Shoes) In fact it seemed she’d been prescient about her own mortality. After his death she became depressed and when we reminded her how much she still had to live for – her...
When I was growing up my parents had a housekeeper named Odessa. She was a tall and stately-looking Black woman, and I adored her. In the mornings before my mother left for work Odessa arrived, made sure I finished my breakfast, and walked me the few blocks to school. And at 3:00 she’d be there to walk me home, and I’ll regale her with all that happened in school that day. Our Bronx house had three stories – my father’s medical office was on the first floor, and...