My Portfolio

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. ...

Just thought you would like to know the picture of Grandma A is the one mom sent to me to restore.  When I got it it was in pieces so I took it to a photo place and the guy restored it to the picture you sent.  It was the one mom...

My First Day of School   It’s 1958 and I’m very excited to start this day as it’s my first day of school. 'Chrissy" my mother calls to me, "your breakfast is ready". I quickly ran to the table to find a bowl of oatmeal (lumpy), with milk and honey and...

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a...

Thank you very much. Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen , ladies and gentlemen: Twenty four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin , speaking to the people of this city and the world at the city hall. Well, since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn, to...

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...

My Wedding Day

Dad taught me that I'd be better off as my own boss than I would be working for one. It's a blue collar thing and without a college degree I've done well enough to afford traveling to a distant land....Russia. Not because I was particularly enamored by the country. I was...

September, 1967. The Viet Nam War is in full swing. I was 18 with the maturity of a 12 year old, more interested in the Beatles and psychedelics than watching the news. A disappointment to my parents, I spent the summer bumming on Cape Cod with my friend, Nicky Russo until...

Kara went to the mall and walked by a pet store with kittens in the window. Cody made a fuss over her and she came home to get me, and we went over and brought her home. Cody was the most lovable cat ever!Both of these pictures are with Katara.

                                                               Pere Lachaise, Paris France On the fateful morning of September 11, 2001, a day that would later be marked by...