Author, Editor of Memoir & Narrative Nonfiction
April 19, 2010 I have been thinking about story today, about what qualities I attributed to my mother and her story telling, and how those qualities differ from the way I tell stories. I suppose all this pondering is to be expected since my mother…
April 17, 2010 I am sitting in a wifi cafe in Florence. These are not nearly as common in Italy as in America. I am freezing. I had forgotten how cold cities constructed of ancient stone can be. They retain the cold, reflect the cold.…
April 15, 2010 I sat for an hour in the Sistine Chapel today. I have been there before, and I felt blessed to be back a second time. It is a place people visit once if they are lucky. I have been doubly lucky. My…
April 14, 2010 Saw the Caravaggio exhibit today (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1571 – 1610) at the Scuderie del Quirinale. Big crowds. Great exhibit! Only about twenty-five paintings, but they were perfectly representative of what the exhibit terms the three phases of his life and…
April 13, 2010 I am in a sea of sound, the elegance of Italian, the gutteral punctuations of German, the fluidity of French. I am in heaven listening and listening and not talking. All around me the pulse of Rome is padded by voices like…
April 10, 2010 I made it to Rome. Plane was late leaving America. I’ve been up for for about 32 hours. I fall asleep at the keyboard, and my head tumbles forward, if I pause to think, so I keep my fingers moving . .…
April 5, 2010 My mother was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, metastasized to the bone, on January 14, 2010. Forty-five days later she was dead. I spent those last days with her, as companion, caregiver, friend, daughter, cook, nurse, and gate keeper to all…