After a brief meeting with a woman I’d just met, I returned to my apartment and was surprised to find her email waiting for me.  She accused me of having been rude and wasted no time in telling me. Bemused, I shrugged, having had the same impression of her. The difference between u

“Suicide,” someone murmured after reading the announcement that a woman had died at the retirement center. “She was estranged from her family,” said another who stood beside the first speaker. Her remark rang true because the death notice asked that no condolences be left for

My essay below first appeared in the ebook magazine Women Writers, Women’s Books on July 27, 2020.  This is a reprint of that article.   EVERYONE HAS A STORY TO TELL “Everyone has a story to tell,” said the woman seated opposite me at my retirement center. Somewhere in her 80s

“I think my mind just exploded.” Those were a subscriber’s words after reading my blog, The Time Travelers.  I knew the compliment didn’t refer to my writing skills. It was a response to the content. The topic was about advances in science and Artificial Intelligence. (AI). I

My branch bank was closing.  The nearest location was three miles away. I don’t own a car so the distance was significant.   Needing to learn how to make future deposits, I stopped by the office to learn about options.     The acting manager greeted me with a smile and waved m

The Lord is in control, the Facebook entry said.  I’m not religious, but I often find “Thank you, Jesus,” remarks threaded through my feed page.  Mostly, I ignore or delete them.  But on the day this one popped onto my computer screen, I was in a different state of mind.  If

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The fly sitting in the staircase window of my retirement center has been dead for several months.  Unlike me, most folks don’t use the back exit to reach ground level.  They prefer the elevator.  I may be the only person in the building to bear witness to the insect’s slow deca

In 2011, Lara Logan, a CBS reporter, was in Cairo’s Tahrir Square covering the Arab Spring celebration– the peaceful overthrow of Hosni Murbaraks’ military dictatorship.   The crowd was jubilant as they sang and danced in the streets, so the reporter was surprised when her

The woman on Facebook said I didn’t understand her comment and accused me of being sarcastic.  I thought I was engaging in subtle teaching.  She needed to see what she’d written made no sense and that blaming others for misunderstanding her wasn’t kosher.  The person who send