I Will Survive…  

By Diana Calaway Phone request:  I need an appointment for an inspection, oil change, tire rotation—and to get a noise fixed. Reply:  What kind of noise? Me:  I don’t know.  A noise that makes me not able to hear the radio any more. The guy:  Is it in the front or the back of the…

By Arlene Mandell I NEEDED A JOB — REAL BAD, REAL FAST! I was living in a tiny room in a boarding house in New Jersey during the divorce process from my off-the-wall, self-destructive husband of 22 years. In Florida, my father had just passed away; my mother was depressed, in dire financial straits, and…

By Samuel C. Newsome Jake awoke at the sound of the first ring of the phone.  After forty years as a local medical examiner he was accustomed to answering the calls before they disturbed Marge, his long-suffering wife of as many years.  This was Sue, the night nurse from the ER calling. “Doc, I hate to bother…

By Helen H. Webb Will I survive my decision in 2019 to move from my home of fifty-five years to the Happy Home Retirement Community?  I had been involved in a variety of activities: playing bridge three afternoons a week, church twice a week, attending a writing group monthly, walking with neighbors daily, and lots of other social activities. The…

By Bill Gramley You put a vase of scarlet tulips on my grave, a summer gift,  and I expect you’ll bring a clutch of wildflowers from a rural road,  the September yellow ones so bright whose names I do not know,   and they’ll invite the ginkgo leaves to skip across      my mound in golden glee! I’ll watch…

By Susan Surman The Meeting: At the Larnaca Airport in Cyprus, Greece, I never heard the call to board. Some instinct made me ask the lady sitting next to me if she was waiting for the flight to London. “No,” she said in broken English, but how you can break up a one syllable word…

By Nancy Hall Although I had recently left my job at UNC School of Social Work, I responded to an announcement about a trip to China for faculty. I was accepted to make the trip. Why China? There were several reasons. I had become a consultant for Kolbe Company and wanted to share the information with people in China. The…

By Annette Martin Collins As I sit in my bedroom, I am remembering life as it once was.  Not long ago I was actively engaged in all the activities many of us octogenarians were doing.  The Shepherd’s Center in town offered so many classes and groups in which we could belong.  I could hop into my car and drive to the center where I would meet my new…