Reader Submissions

Unexpected arrival of old age

By: Joseph R. Hughes

               Here’s a big question. When does old age begin? Will thirty years do it? Is being 50 and holder of an AARP card with senior discounts enough?  Both would be wrong guesses. Until recently I hadn’t thought much about it. Yet, I got the answer to this eminent question without asking.

Tender Feelings

By: Paul Marx

Sometimes a friendship ends when one of the friends is indiscrete about a sensitive matter. Or it can be a doctor who seems to be in a rush. Or a waiter who forgot to bring the coffee. Or a teacher who was too critical in front of a class. One mistake is made, and the relationship is over and done with.

Montreal Winter

By: Marialyce Sherr

An old man, bundled against the snowy February blasts, peers into a familiar store window on Rue St. Paul in Old Montreal, Quebec. The contents of the window are unchanged from the time he passed it a month ago, yet he knows that he himself has aged considerably over those harsh weeks. He wonders if this is a winter that will have no end. He thinks that even if it does end, he will be unwilling to welcome another boisterous spring. He has seen too many tender buds bloom, turn brown, and die.

Goodbye, old friend

By: Chris Haws

It’s been your family home for ten, fifteen, twenty years or more.  For all that time, as the kids arrived and thrived, it’s been the center of your collective experience.  Joy, jubilation and happy chaos.  Tantrums, tears and teenage moods. Thanksgiving turkeys, summer barbecues, spring salads, winter stews and soups. Visiting friends and relatives – lots of relatives.

"Nobody Does It Better": Hamlisch, a Mensch 'til the End

By: Karen Feld

As I awoke Tuesday morning to his "Good Morning, America" theme playing in the background, I was shocked to learn that my friend, Marvin Hamlisch, the award-winning composer, conductor and versatile entertainer had passed away at the relatively young age of 68.

Mother's Day: The Mother-Daughter Bond

By: Sharon Nicolary

 I remember my favorite mother-daughter moment when I was little. My mother took me to see the movie Grease. I was so excited, I could hardly wait. I was nine years old and my mother was forty-four, yet we were like a couple of three-year-olds on Christmas morning. We both loved the movie, as much as we loved Swiss cheese and ham roll-ups. She told me all about her high school days, just like what I was watching on the big screen. Olivia Newton John was our favorite and her song, "I Honestly Love You," was the best thing we thought we had ever heard.  

Rain

By: Myra Tate

The heavy winter rain washes the street clean after the leaf-blowers have gone.   Still covered with oak, maple, and other desiccated leaves the short wintry grass takes on their fading browns and yellows.   I walk gingerly, knowing that wet leaves are slippery and a fall at my age would be dangerous.  I am glad to have made it safely inside.   The crepe-myrtle that graces my office window has shed its pink blossoms. Now there are tiny sparkling

Happily, A Student

By: Myra Tate

Choose something to study And suddenly Everything changes.   The most complex task Does not look so forbidding.  Everything changes.   Choose something to study That has always beckoned and Everything changes.   Make a commitment at last To be consistent  - to accept  The work, and everything changes.   Suddenly, what you have Struggled with for a lifetime Changes – and surprise –   So does everything else!

Moving my folks

By: Caroline Boston

Dear Editor: Regarding your column “Moving the folks,” here is my story. Once the lease was signed authorizing me to move to a retirement community, I had one month to downsize from a two bedroom to a studio apartment. I immediately began to store newspapers, collect boxes and concentrate on movers.