I’ve moved through life assuming that giving birth was always a possibility. And now, at nearly 43, I have to sever that option or cling on to it.
Severing would mean better physical health, the resolution of medical issues, and a life liberated from menstruation. Now that I spend more time menstruating than not, I can’t [...]
Archive for the ‘Family’ category
Bye bye baby
Stella and the aging parents
I just got back from England where I celebrated my Dad’s 70th birthday and faced the reality of aging parents.
My normally laid-back father was deeply stressed out about his party. Ok, it was for 90 people and I too would be uptight, but on the morning of the event he collected me from the airport [...]
Interstitial
In New York for a few days, and as usual, it’s sensory and emotional overload. Friends I think of every day—but see only once or twice a year—are here in the flesh. We go to amazing restaurants and wander around museums. We gossip and catch up and sit in loving companionable silence. [...]
A Child is Born to Dad and Papa
What an incredibly joyous reason to write a post. I am so happy to introduce Hanover Robinson Gottlock to you all!
Our dear friends (and former TGW contributers) Brian and Robbins Gottlock welcomed their first son into the world last Thursday November 12, 2009, at 8:54 AM. He arrived 3.5 weeks premature and [...]
Warmest welcomes
You might have seen this when it went viral last week, but in case not, here’s the most incredibly touching welcome home I’ve ever seen:
It turns out that there are a spate of such “welcome home” videos, showing soldiers returning from the Middle East to rapturous receptions from their kids…
… and their dogs:
We could probably [...]
Were your parents awesome?
I’ve been perusing a new website called “My Parents Were Awesome.” It’s a compilation of photos people have sent in, showing their parents 20, 30, 40 years ago, when they were young and hip and fashionable. Or, younger and hipper and fashionabler, anyway.
I like this site because the older parents get, the easier it is [...]
CHD: Short one towel.
I settle down at the computer to write a Whatsit post when four gun shots ring out from the street directly in front of our house. This happens within the hour of my typing these words, the night before my post is due, and the helis only stop buzzing the neighborhood in the last five [...]
Oh, brother
I’ve written about my brother several times on TGW, mostly reminiscences from our childhood days. He and I were natural antagonists: the overachieving, tattletale younger sister and the older brother whose approval she always sought, usually unsuccessfully.
My memories of our childhood are mostly good ones, though; even when my brother and I fought, the battles [...]
Dance of death
As a teenager I remember a brilliant production of August Strindberg’s Dance of Death at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, England with Edward Fox. The vicious, toxic marriage of Edgar and Alice struck a deep chord.
I am currently trapped in a lovely cottage in a small village in the north of England with my [...]
