Work – His Smile Lit Up a Room and Other Things to Say at My Funeral

Days Like Today

I have exercised, eaten breakfast, and dropped Dobby at the groomer (he hates that). I am in the middle of an annual online training that is required at work. My pulse is ninety beats per minute—almost exactly that of my walking heart rate. (My resting heart rate is typically in the fifties.) My mind isContinue reading “Days Like Today”

A Mind That’s Weak, A Back That’s Strong

He has finished the ham and funeral potatoes, and he wanders over to Uncle Ned standing next to Uncle Max. “Dad wasn’t such a bad guy. If he got angry and you were near him, he might kick you down the stairs. But if you survived that explosion, it was over quick and he wasContinue reading “A Mind That’s Weak, A Back That’s Strong”

Alone in Everett on a Hot Summer Day

Knowing how to receive revelation does not make it easy. He is home by himself in the third-floor, two-bedroom apartment on Union Street in Everett. A hospital is over the hill. There are no woods to flee to where he could find quiet. Lauren has taken Grant, age six weeks, to California to see herContinue reading “Alone in Everett on a Hot Summer Day”

Now They Always Say Congratulations

It is 9 pm. He is still in his white shirt and suit pants but has removed his tie. He sits in the dimly lit kitchen of their 800 square foot condo. Before him are two piles—on the left are the unedited pages and on the right are the reedited pages. He messed up theContinue reading “Now They Always Say Congratulations”