Being a woman is the best. We are so lucky. We have all the advantages and always have. Men want us and need us and protect us and basically revere us. What’s not to like about that? We have such advantages! We don’t have to go down into the basement to discover what “that sound” was! For many everyday scary things men will show us their bravery. It is they who get the snake out of the house, get rid…
The voice spoke to me from outside my body but I was alone. There was no one with me. “You don’t want to live here. You need to leave and go to Charlottesville. You want to be with your children and grandchildren. Go!” I was alone in my mothers’ bedroom on a day in late February 2020. The room was dark, curtains drawn, and the blue silk wallpaper seemed to fade out to nothing. The cream-colored, French provincial, dresser I…
All summer of 1916 Helen wrote Billy Hale every day except on the days when they saw each other. While he was absent she spent a lot of time painting china. He visited her in Midland, which was a company town, with little else to offer the visitor. She writes of longing to see him, to kiss him, but not too much. She is clearly passionate about him, but circumspect in her writing about this part. They were still chaste…
My grandmother Helen Dow Hale was smart and funny. She was one of six children, the oldest one in her family. She had loads of friends when she went to college. She was young and vibrant and full of hope and plans for the future. She graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1916. While there, along with studying and joining a sorority Theta of Alpha Phi and making new friends, she fell in love with her…
In one closet, the scent of mothballs was so strong that we usually just opened then shut the door. We knew several fur coats were hanging in this one. And an umbrella trimmed in mink hung on a hook. Finally, one day I opened the door all the way and began to remove items. There were multiple cashmere scarves, a handmade quilt, boxes and boxes of negatives to photos she had put in albums, a large feather duvet wrapped in…
When I called my mother and asked her to come to stay while I spent a night in the hospital, she said: “I am sorry, I can’t.” What? I thought I must have misheard her. It happened this way; When I was 20 and a new bride and an extremely new mother, I had a small medical issue. My doctor said he could fix it, but it would require one night in the hospital. We lived in Charlottesville, VA, in…
It is more than 100 years old. My daughter cut off the greater part of it for her daughter’s wedding. That part that covers the bride’s head has a pattern of seed pearls sewn into it. The border all around the body, which is of silk netting, is a continuous row of pearls. Originally it was Cathedral length veil, which in photos lays coiled around to settle in front of the bride. But it was difficult to walk with it…
Today I saw an Instagram meme from Share and Inspire that just made my day!!! It spoke of one of those UNspoken truths that everyone resists in spite of the TRUTH of it. Life is messy. And it is wonderful, so we need to get over the desire to make everything neat and tidy. It just frustrates us. Something I learned about myself years ago surprised me. I am a closet perfectionist. It is so nice to walk into a…
August 25th, Saturday 2018?The Wedding Today I watched my first granddaughter get married. Delilah married Alex Harris. They met in 4th grade. And today is the culmination of a courtship, many years in the making. On waking in D.C. at Underoak, I noticed the lovely weather immediately. Yesterday was perfect. Today was simply more perfect, if possible. The almost full moon last night was going to be full tonight. The temperature was moderate and the humidity almost nil. The…
Happy New Year to all my friends and readers and everyone else! ?1-1-11 must be an enchanted day!! It is fun just to write that date and watch all those “1 s” appear as little exclamation points. I wore my new furry boots from Nobel Neilsen in Middleburg Virginia, on New Years Eve, (cause I actually just went out to baby sit some of my grandchildren) New Year’s Eve is NOT a good night to party just for the sake…
As a divorcee later in life myself, I was curious about? Eat Pray Love. I?ve read the book and I saw the movie over the weekend. Although the story was charming, I had a hard time relating. It did not resonate with me in the way it did with so many women.? I have been on a similar journey and it has taken years. I was never as unhappy about divorcing as Liz(Julia Roberts) was and I had had many…
Today I was browsing sites that deal with women their problems and desires as they age. One of my favorites is Libido fo Life. There I found a post by Joan Price who wrote Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex after Sixty and the upcoming Naked at Our Age. She had answered a question about using a vibrator rather than having an orgasm without electrical enhancement. That struck a chord with me, because when writing my book…
I have been wanting to write something about long term marriages which end amicably.? I wish there were more of them.? When two people who have loved each other decide to give each other the freedom to live their lives in a new way and go forward without each other they should be given some praise.? Such honesty is hard to come by.? It takes real guts to break lose after so many years.? All the friends who have admired…
