When Turning Off the News Is Not Enough

September 29, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

“I am glad that Bill Cosby got jail time,” I state, seated across from my husband at lunch. “I hope justice doesn’t stop there.” My husband shifts uncomfortably in his chair. He thought that Cosby should have house arrest. He doesn’t say it now – he’s too sensitive for that – but he has said […]

Exit Strategy

September 28, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

One more train. Then she’d be away. Far enough to lose all communication. Far enough that he could not find her. “Can I help you Ma’am?” a porter reached for her luggage. Passengers crowded in behind. “Just a moment, thanks.” Pulling her suitcase aside, she fidgeted with her purse, pretending to be searching for a […]

Hidden Messages

August 10, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

“I’m not as smart as you. I’d probably be okay if I was smarter.” “That’s not true, June. You are very smart.” “Do you really think so?” My sister and I are doing dishes after supper. June suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. “You got 96% in your nursing program,” I remind her. “Intelligence is not your […]

Life With Father

June 29, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

“Whatever it is we need to learn from each other, I say let’s do it now, so we don’t have to come back and repeat it,” I told my father once during a period in which I was exploring the concept of reincarnation. I imagine he lowered his chin and looked over his spectacles at […]

Writing Class #4

March 27, 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

(As a final prompt for the writing class I am enrolled in, we are asked to think about signposts along the way. This is my entry.) The Tour Guide I take a seat at the back of the open wagon, and wait with a handful of others for the tour to begin. The country air […]

Lines of Control

January 21, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

“Why do you always wear black; you look so much better in colours.” Then when you wear colour: “You look like your mother in that outfit. I prefer you in black.” “You’re not going to eat that, are you? A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.” “You know if you loved me […]

The Other Side of the Fence

January 20, 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

The longest my family ever lived in one place was when I was aged four to eleven. We lived in a house, built by my father, with a fortress of cedars on either side of the backyard to “keep out nosy neighbours”. Behind was a farmer’s field and beyond a wooded area. My father had […]

Violence Has No Justification

November 15, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

The tall, lanky man my sister brought home was not unlike my father: both British, with startling blue eyes, a dark mop of hair, and a rakish grin. Before anyone could introduce them, my father reached out his hand, grasped the younger man’s in a death grip, and stared straight into his eyes. “I’ll trust […]

What Memories Linger?

August 26, 2016.Reading time 3 minutes.

“My dreams have turned violent lately, lots of blood. What could that mean?” “What does blood represent to you?” “Well passion, life giving, but these dreams have a woman being decapitated, a baby being cut with scissors, and it always occurs in connection to my childhood home.” “Not life giving, then.” “I usually convert the […]

Learn From My Mistakes: Relationships

August 15, 2016.Reading time 2 minutes.

Wrote a prescription for the perfect man: made him tall, strong, romantic, dependable, family oriented; told myself I was ready. Projected expectations onto the first likely candidate – single dad, three full-time kids – read desire in his brooding eyes, ignored the burden of his grief, the irrational speed at which we moved, the complications […]