With no husband to complain about my bad habits and quirky tastes, I’m free to think and do lots of things I’d set aside for many years. Read more.
Michigan
Is There an Upside to Widowhood? I’m Looking at the Possibilities
Now that Jon is gone, I am keeping an eye out for reasons to like going it alone. I’m wondering, are there any upsides to widowhood? Read more.
A Book of Essays From Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite — Did She Write It or Did I? Sheltering at Home Week 26
Cathy Guisewite’s thoughts about life in “Fifty Things That Aren’t My Fault” look a lot like the thoughts running around in my own brain. Read more.
I Was a Culturally Deprived Kid: My Teachers Never Told Me About the Ojibwe Poet Jane Johnston Schoolcraft
[caption id="attachment_14910" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
We shared a love of the Michigan woods — pine, oak and birch. Photo by Barbara Newhall[/caption]
We shared a love of the Michigan woods — pine, oak and birch. Photo by Barbara Newhall[/caption]
This Ojibwe poet would have been dear to my girlish Michigan heart. Why didn’t my Detroit schoolteachers ever mention her? Was I culturally deprived? Read more.
A Lost Child in Wartime Detroit — A Headscarf Story
I couldn’t see the point of my mother’s skimpy yellow babushka — until the day I found myself a lost child in a cavernous Detroit department store. Read more.
Wisdom From My Father — Or, How to Sweep the Kitchen Floor
“Think about what you are doing,” my father told me. “Use your head.” His advice still applies in a 21st-century world neither of us could have imagined. Read more.
The First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Michigan — Last Stop on My One-Woman Road Trip
I’d sung in the choir and been confirmed at the First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham. And now I was invited to read from “Wrestling with God.” Read more.