My sister Kathy approached the occasion of her 50th birthday party with unfettered glee. She mingled, hugged, high-fived, sang, chatted, reminisced, tasted, sipped, posed, and, utterly unfazed by the number on the top of her cake, happily wished as she blew out her candles. Unsure which of her favorite two outfits she should wear, Kathy [...]
Two weeks ago, as an historic blizzard cocooned me in my house, I unwrapped a gift from a blogging friend. I’ve never met Cheryl Calpaldo Traylor in person, but, through her blog, Giving Voice to My Astonishment, I know her to be a talented writer and a generous host of this gorgeous planet we call [...]
From her stoop in the center of a sophisticated city, my niece Erin has carved out a delightful little corner of Mayberry. She and her neighborhood gang enjoy a living-room-forts, frontyard-warter-balloon-fight, Saturday-sleepover, come-home-when-the-streetlights-turn-on kind of childhood, while all around them Chicago hums. They each have the necessary kind of scheduled activities that keep their parents [...]
The sun broke through a thick fog yesterday morning as we made our way to Milwaukee to celebrate my sister Kathy's last day of chemo. After 20 weeks of treatment, Kathy deserved much more than a bouquet of flowers, a care package and a trio of surprise visitors to mark the happy milestone. Still, our [...]
Under the cover of 10,000 hogs, we pulled off the perfect surprise birthday party Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee. Planned with military precision by a three-generational task force -- the indomitable Grandma Peggy, Katherine and Erin -- the party required coded messages on cellphones and layer cakes, thirteen helium balloons and a tiny human carrier just [...]