“mom, send sheets”

When I packed up my old dining room and moved to the new, several note books made the trip.  Notepads, small spiral-bound note books and pens were always kept by the phone. In this new space I carry a cell phone and have no designated message area.  I worry I'll forget something important before I can write it …

Counting Them Home

Calendars and clocks were no use to me...at least not until the very end.  And even then there is no civilian who can compete with the Army's time table. The days of sons deployed .... these were counted in missed Christmases and birthdays... in breaking news stories I didn't want to watch but couldn't help …

Brothers, Mothers and War

I was intrigued to find poet Walt Whitman had been at the Battle of Fredericksburg during the Civil War... bought a thin booklet about his life and some selected writings at the bookstore in Arlington.  He was 42 when the war started.  His younger brother George joined the 51st New York Volunteers.  Hearing his brother had been hurt, …