What Mothers Do

I’ve got five kids and I’ve been a mother for over 21 years.  I find that my “mothering urges” sort of spread themselves over whatever children happen to be around me.  When my kids have friends over, I’m all “sweetheart” and “honey” at them.  I feed them.  I feel sorry for them if they are [...]

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The Mills of God Grind Slowly . . .

Knox County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Brad Hall called Yolanda Harper and Russell Houser “Good Samaritans.”  Katie Allison Granju called them predators. who gave her son Henry the drugs that led to his fatal overdose. Knoxville News Sentinel commenters called Katie a nutcase who was looking for someone to blame for her own parenting failures.  Katie [...]

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And Justice for All

Lorelei stated rather matter-of-factly the other day that the next time we go out of town, our house will burn down again.  And of course I told her that will not happen, that it is very, very rare for a family to suffer such a random, terrible accident. That’s one aspect of this situation that [...]

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Back in the High Life

Drama was my “thing” in high school.  I landed a starring role as a freshman and was involved with every production until graduation.  I’d been involved in theatre in grade school as well, and at one time was planning on being an actress when I grew up. But I felt intimidated by the theatre scene [...]

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And there was another Sister . . .

. . . who I really must remember today, because today is her birthday!  Sister Mary Albertine is another KCHS grad, from the class of 1947.  That means, I suppose, that she is turning 83 today, which is simply impossible to believe if you see her.  She has hardly changed since she taught me Algebra [...]

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Some of the best teachers I ever had . . .

. . . were Sisters of Mercy.  And I have a special reason for thinking about them today. My various Catholic Facebook pages inform me that today is the feast of St. Camillus deLellis.  Now, I don’t know squat about old St. Camillus, but his surname is very familiar to me.   All four of my [...]

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One Short Life

A year ago today, a young life ended.  Today marks the end of the first year that Henry’s family spent without him, longing for him on every holiday and birthday, at the birth of his sister  and death of his great-grandmother, during family milestones and every day moments.  They say that the first year is [...]

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Two Little Girls

Do you remember this little video from Sesame Street? It reminds me of me and one of my first best friends, Mary Jo, whom I met when we were about that age–six, to be exact–as first graders at St. Joseph School.  We hit it off immediately and from then until she left after 4th grade [...]

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Song of Spring

Despite the warm weather, it’s gloomy and un-Springlike out my window this morning.  Rain is forecast for later and I just hope it holds off until after my kindergartner’s much-anticipated field trip to Ijams Nature Center is complete. I’m a big fan of four definite seasons, and I love something about all of them, but [...]

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Justice for Henry

I became a fan of Katie Allison Granju at least ten years ago, when she was writing her column “Loco Parentis” in the Metropulse (that’s our alternative weekly for my non-Knoxvillian readers.).  It was near the back of the paper, I remember, and the first place I turned when I picked up my copy.  When [...]

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