by Sue | Dec 5, 2022 | Books & Writers
It started as a short story, but I soon discovered the plot’s arc was too big. It needed to be a novel. So, over the next five years, between article assignments and blogs, in fits and starts, Lou Skalney’s life took form and became my “magnum opus.” It lived...
by Sue | Nov 29, 2022 | Care Giving
So I’ve been a nurse for over 50 years, in hospital and community settings. My desire to work with caregivers arose when I was the sole caregiver for both my parents. It was grueling trying to balance work and my home life. It made me wonder how “lay” people...
by Sue | Nov 21, 2022 | Body & Soul
I like Fall and cozy overcast afternoons with my homemade soup simmering while a fire burns in the fireplace. But I bah-humbug my way through the holidays and rejoice on January 2nd. Clearly, I don’t suffer what many of you do once we turn our clocks back an hour....
by Sue | Nov 14, 2022 | Faith
I could be dead right now. Looking back, the whole thing seemed like a fluke, until… I heard a funny sound coming from my refrigerator. I peered inside and everything looked okay, so I thought nothing of it. A few days later, standing in front of my washing...
by Sue | Nov 7, 2022 | Books & Writers
Eliza knew Cadfan, in a fit of jealousy, had tethered Angharad’s spirit to the Ruins of Maldwyn. No one would have her in the afterlife. She would remain his for all eternity. Determined to free her ancestor, Eliza stood before the crumbling stones, a dozen...
by Sue | Oct 31, 2022 | Care Giving
As I was deciding what I wanted to blog about today, I realized that many folks my age are care receivers and not caregivers. Because I’m in that vulnerable cohort, I often get those phonecalls that begin, “Hi Grandma.” A sob story seeking money as the solution soon...
by Sue | Oct 24, 2022 | Body & Soul
My friend and I vacationed in Tennessee and shared a lovely, rented home for a week. Having both lost our husbands, we discovered each of us had been attributing “hidden items” on playfulness from beyond, as in I know I put that there! Where is it? As we worked...
by Sue | Oct 17, 2022 | Books & Writers
Rick Iekel writes wonderful local history— the kind teachers should use in their classrooms. In his first book, House with a Heart, Rick cleverly uses the house as the point of view character while travelers seek shelter in it from a storm. In the most engaging way,...
by Sue | Oct 3, 2022 | Body & Soul
I’m told I weighed only four pounds at birth. That was the last time I was grossly underweight because Mom fed me every two hours from then on. Maybe that’s why I graze often to this day! My father used to call food cravings “body wisdom.” If you crave it, you must...
by Sue | Sep 26, 2022 | Faith
Jesus compared his Gospel to the mustard seed that grows into a tree large enough to support thousands of birds. So when I imagine the universal Christian Church, I see that mustard tree with its many branches, and roots that bore deep into the soil. In my...
