December 12th, 2025 | Boston, Family, Friends, General, Holidays, Loss, Pets, Writing
With the odd nip and tuck, here’s what went out in red envelopes this year. The Annual Greeting I was gonna be granny of the groom! Miles and Holly were to wed on September 6, and I had been holding the date since forever. The couple’s color palette was green...
October 31st, 2025 | Changes, Friends, General, Loss, Memory, Time Passes
In 1921, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)—and the world at large it seemed—was at a turning point. The devastation of World War I had hollowed a generation of artists, of painters and sculptors, poets and musicians. Picasso himself turned forty, a moment when many pause,...
May 4th, 2025 | Changes, Family, Genealogy, General, Health, Loss
Until late on May 2, our sibling group was always symmetrical. There were two girls and two boys. The girls were the elder, the boys were the younger. The Change On May 1, 2025—or was it April 30?—the boy who lived sometimes on his boat and relied on the hospitality...
December 1st, 2024 | Changes, Friends, General, Loss, Memory, visual arts
Obituaries mark with increasing insistence the evanescence of my own memories. A notice reminds me of this musician or that scholar or politician or athlete. On Friday, November 29, 2024, the day after Thanksgiving, it was the loss of the great photographer, Paul...
April 30th, 2024 | Changes, Family, General, Law, Loss
They say it takes nine months to bring a baby into the world and nine months to see a person on to the next. There are reasons for that. Probate requires that the opening of an estate be advertised to overlooked children and random creditors. Fair enough, I have...
April 24th, 2024 | Changes, Family, Genealogy, General, Loss, Memory, Time Passes
It is April 8th. This morning I meet with Dan’s estate attorney, Bob Blue, at 10:30 am to finish up details. This afternoon, Turning Leaf ladies come by to “stage” the house for the estate sale that will take place this coming Friday and Saturday. And, of course, the...