Author Archive: Nancy
Not Having Children
(I wrote this essay twenty years ago. I published it here for the first time six years ago. This Mother’s Day, I share it again.) *** I married when I was forty. It was amazing at that age how many people asked me if we were going to have children. No, I’d say, We’re not …
Ghosted
I just spent all day writing a long piece on the end of a friendship. I decided not to post it. Because I realize that after 1500 words, what I wanted to say wasn’t there. Here is a short version. A year ago, a friend ghosted me. She broke dates, stopped calling, stopped returning my …
More Lessons From My Phone
Well, last week I bitched commented about how the interior design game I chose for my new phone wouldn’t let me win. I took a positive attitude, describing how it was teaching me worthwhile lessons about whether to please myself or please others. But in truth, I was pretty pissed disillusioned. I am here today …
Winning The Game
You know how we translate age for dogs and cats? Like “Old Jasper is 82 in dog years…” Well, if there is not an age-equivalency term for electronic equipment, there should be. Maybe we could call it nano-years. “This old phone?… It’s 107 in nano-years” – which in human chronological terms means: it’s three. So on to the …
Blame
An old friend from work is in a very messy situation. She’s a wreck. Her family is a wreck. And there is no way to get around it – she brought it on herself. I’m sure you know someone like Maggie. If there are two choices, she will pick the worse one every time. It’s …
‘Not Quite Old’ Is Now Quite Old
Another birthday. A big one. I’m 70. Dear God – could that even be true? Seventy. I’m not sure what 70 is supposed to feel like. But I didn’t expect it to feel like this. Like … Nice. I just received a card in the mail from a sweet cousin. It made me laugh out …
ABECEDARIAN
Recently a friend directed me to a story on Medium.com. (I publish there once in a while too.) My friend’s friend had posted a little writing exercise that I just adored. An ABECEDARIAN is a 26 sentence story, with each sentence beginning with each sequential letter of the alphabet. It’s a fun exercise that really …
Facing Reality
My latest novel, SISTERS, SECRETS, AND THE JUNIOR PROM, is set in high school in 1969, which, by sheer coincidence, is where I happened to be in 1969. The book is fiction. Untrue. Made up. Has no basis in reality. Except, of course, like all fiction, pieces of my life weave in and out of …
Near Miss
I am a daydreamer. I come from a family of daydreamers. We’ve been quite happy being daydreamers. I remember many years ago when my brother was in elementary school, my mother attended a parent-teacher meeting, and the teacher told my mother, “Tommy is a daydreamer.” My mother replied, “Yes, we’re really proud of him.” Because …
Lifting Up
There is a Facebook page that I follow for its kindness and optimism. I am not alone. More than 5 million people have liked this page. There is never any criticism in its posts. There is just support, understanding, and acceptance. For example: Recently, they posted this: More than 9,000 people responded. I read the …
notquiteold 