February 2023
The Holiday Card
“We’ll Be Friends Forever, Won’t We, Pooh?”
Piglet in A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh
Piglet in A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh
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He waits until making eye contact, shoulders hunched
over a red walker, black jacket zipped to his chin, hood pulled about his head as the uncharacteristic winds roar through the month of holidays. Gloved hand clutching both walker and envelope, he inches toward me slowly but with resolve. He asks if I know the area—a sidewalk as familiar as the road to my house. Pointing to the block-like printing on the envelope, he says he is looking for #229. I offer to run ahead to my mother’s building, to scan the roster posted outside locked doors, see if there is a match on the second floor. There is not and I am surprised by how few names I now recognize since first opening these doors eight years ago. I offer to jog to the other building. He shakes his head. “I live there. He does not.” In halting phrases, he tells me about his friend, an entrepreneur, a man of influence. I key the name into my phone and gently ask if his friend might have passed, not mentioning it has been twenty-seven years. The man’s shoulders shrug beneath his jacket. “I might have used an old address list,” he murmurs before turning and beginning the walk home, envelope still in hand. |
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In May, from a mother and daughter comes a book in prose and poems
Miracle Within Small Things:
A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Loss and Aging
January 2023
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After she loses her husband of sixty-three years and six weeks later, her beloved dog, Jane McKinney turns to writing poetry to find comfort. Residing in Arizona and feeling isolated from her six children located in the eastern part of the country, she moves to an independent senior living facility in West Michigan to be closer. Her daughter, Mary, lives seven miles away. Together they find comfort and delight in writing, in nature, in a variety of outdoor adventures as they weather the loss of loved ones, the often grim realities of aging and the threat of the ever-lurking coronavirus. When Jane falls in the midst of the pandemic, Mary becomes the primary caregiver. Her mother in the recliner, Mary on the floor at her feet, the two create a daily ritual they call “chair chat.” Sharing their writing, an intimacy develops between mother and daughter as they reveal their respective journeys to find peace of mind and joy of heart, even in life’s most difficult times. Threading through both their stories is the importance of nature in healing.
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