Category: my life

  • My Beautiful Mother

    Just after Mom died, her friend, Diann Macbeth, wrote a remembrance of her based on decades of church service together, which my family has treasured ever since. I now share it in full: Janet, My Friend Occasionally someone enters our life so softly and gently that at first we scarcely notice they are there. Like…

  • Mom’s Suicide

    On March 1st, 2003 my mother shot herself in the head, ending her life at the age of 46. Today marks twelve years since that day. For much of that time I rarely ever spoke of my mother’s suicide. One small indication of this: the first posts on this blog were less than a year…

  • Regarding Mom

    As today marks the twelfth anniversary of her suicide, my mom is in my thoughts. After all these years I still struggle to make sense of her memory. I see it all from the child’s perspective I had when I knew her, and from that point of view she was a paradox: somebody immensely kind…