My Portfolio

Laughter ranks on top when it comes to my family's emotions.  Mom and Dad made sure there was a lot of it, and we have all been blessed with a good sense of humor.  Some of us have more of a devious way of delivering humor; however, I tend to stay...

Last Friday, I had an experience I won't likely forget.  My friend Melanie & I went to Odyssey Healthcare, a hospice organization, to take a training from our friend Lorrie about how to work with hospice patients as I go volunteer with them, doing StoryKeeper work.We started off with several little...

So I thought I'd start by introducing the family I helped to make. I have a husband--Sam. He's just fantastic. He's nearly everything I'm not. Calm, reserved and even keeled. I tend to be the hothead and spontaneous one of the two of us. Sam brought to our family two daughers--Jen...

Surviving The Wrath of a Major HurricaneChapter 1 - A Desire for Climate ChangeFor us, the winter of 2001 was long, cold and dreary.  We were living in Ashland, Massachusetts, a modest, blue collar town located about 25 miles west of Boston.  Snow had fallen so often that the tops of...

Chapter 2 - Batten Down the Hatches!This "extended vacation" would come to a crashing halt for us on August 13th, 2004.  For days we watched the news, our first experience in following a tropical storm turned hurricane as it turned north towards Florida</st1:state>.  Forecasters said it was going to make a...

Chapter 3 - Barricaded Inside a 2’x6’ ClosetIt was time to plan our escape within the house and the most obvious option for our "hunkering down" was our master bedroom closet.  So I emptied it like a madman, tossing things out and visualizing how we were all going to fit in...

Chapter 4 - Heeeere's Charley!I peeked out the sliders for the last time and saw trees being shaken and tossed around like rag dolls.  Even the mightiest of oak trees were being picked out of the ground like tulips.  Across the water I saw the same scene, but on a much...

Chapter 5 - Onto a New Safe RoomI poked my head out the closet door, and to my amazement the drywall was still mostly in place to my right, which was also the only way out.  To the left the tunnel skylight was gone and drywall was soaked, with water pouring...

Chapter 6 - Is It Over?I’m thinking “We made it!”  But did we?  It felt like the dream was continuing on.  “Did this whole thing really happen?  Did we survive or was this our imagination?”  We were so emotionally drained at this point that we were just plain numb.  The emotional...

One night, long after he went to bed, 6 year old Eric got up out of bed and came into the livingroom to say that he just could not go to sleep. I immediately prescribed him the usual cure for his insomnia - go back to bed and count to one...

That Green House Two years prior to buying our first house in Ashland, Anne and I had to rent.  Our first rental was a wonderful townhouse in a nice development Ashland, walking distance from where we eventually bought our first home 2 years later.  Our plan was to stay in this townhouse...

Recently, a 7 year old Florida boy was up way past his bedtime, mulling around, finding ways to avoid that final goodnight hug and kiss from his mom and dad.  Being a 7 year old, he still doesn't realize how much it helps his mom and dad when he does finally...

James G, yes a capital Gin a flash, age 60 is he! A silly poem would be inappropriate to celebrate such an admirable life.  As an infant, Jim was immediately dealt the challenge of losing sight in one eye, something that few people would have the courage and will to overcome. ...

One day, when I was a young mother of two small children, I went to visit my sister who lived nearby. On the way, I stopped to pick up doughnuts for all of us. While exiting the doughnut shop I stared, frozen with disbelief while watching my car, with my children...