A number of people on my Facebook page say they suffer from depressions from time to time. The condition leaves them debilitated but they usually apologize for having shared their pain. When I read these Mea culpas I wish I were close enough to give them a hug. Today, however, I can d

Last week, I took a friend to lunch to celebrate her 73rd year. She’s as fit as anyone half her age and has kept her figure so that she wears clothes well and always looks stylish. Her one concern about getting older is Alzheimer’s, a disease that afflicted her father. She doesnâ€

When I was younger, I avoided reading books by Willa Cather. Like the average teenager, I looked askance at stories of middle age or frontier drudgery. What had any of it to do with modern life? Even while she was alive, her stories weren’t considered in the vanguard of her century.