Marian Longenecker Beaman's memoir shares heartwarming vignettes of life in Lancaster County, PA. The author paints images with words of the joys and frustrations of growing up as a Mennonite. I visited Lancaster County several years ago. But I was not as aware of the Mennonites and their restrictions as I was of the Amish.…
Mother had always said we could go to school if we wanted. We just had to ask Dad, she said. Then we could go. But I didn't ask. There was something in the hard line of my father's face, in the quiet sigh of supplication he made every morning before he began family prayer, that…
JUST WHAT DO I MEAN?The featured image above holds the answer to this question. The word cloud contains many emotions experienced by those confronted with negative reactions. Perhaps in the form of words or even by threatened actions. Reading the emotions tells us what our words and actions may do to another. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Let's…
Somehow I believed it was my obligation to try to do the right thing by her because she had given birth to me.Burdened with constant worry for her father and the guilt caused by her mother’s narcissism, D.G. Kaye had a short childhood. When she moved away from home at age eighteen, she began to…
Years ago I hated Mother's Day. The search for a card was the worst. A card that didn't say: "Mom, you're the greatest," "I adore you, Mom," "Mother, you're the best ever!" And Hallmark had plenty more I ignored and didn't buy until I felt guilty. The verses and kudos didn't fit the mother I…