How, I was wondering, could homesickness affect someone who was so sick of home?
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When Things Picked Up
The world probably had room in it — even for me
Essays
A Few of Many Views of a (Possibly) Gentle Man’s Gentle Son
I never expected to memorialize my father
My father’s mother wanted “a gentle man” for a second husband, unlike the first. I don’t know about the first, because he died long before my birth and my father rarely mentioned him.
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Summer Reading
Once upon a time, Donna Parker and Trixie Belden saved a lonely little girl
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: For a child in small-town Alabama, books provided solace in summers without friends and activities.
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Gardening for Fun and … Profit?
How taming a too-steep-to-mow hillside became a new hobby
I’d never been an outdoors kind of gal, but as my 74th birthday approached, I decided to tame our unruly back acre.
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Life and Love on “The Rock”
Our visit to Alcatraz opened my eyes and heart
My daughter didn’t go to Alcatraz willingly. She grumbled the whole way, punctuating the morning with sarcasm: “Yay, it’s prison day!” Perhaps she was right — what purpose did it serve to see this horrific chapter of history?
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Southernified
The pleasures of patience, redbuds, and good neighbors
Sometimes I wonder why anyone would want to live anywhere but the South and whether I’ve discovered some secret to life since moving here.
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