Family

Tonight, my friend and I were having dinner at a fun Mexican restaurant in my town, when we heard shouting and screaming. Not knowing if it was reaction to something sports-related on one of the TV screens, we casually looked toward where the sound was coming from and realized this was actually an incendiary altercation…

When an infuriated ex-soldier took a Veterans Administration official hostage in Erie, Pennsylvania, Sgt. Leo J. Waldinger and Patrolman Walter R. May rescued the victim and sacrificed their own lives.

A verdant legacy lies above Lake Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania. That is Zuck Park, located in Millcreek Township, adjacent to the city of Erie.

Residents slump over wheelchair armrests in the overly air-conditioned “living room.” The television blasts a folk tune hijacked for a diabetes drug. Off to the right and left, like airport runways, lights over patient rooms flank the corridors, because the staff has turned off the call bells. A woman alone in her room cries, “Help…

Out with the old; make way for the new. That was the theme for many years here in Erie County, Pennsylvania, as time-honored buildings were torn down and replaced with contemporary structures.  The 12-story, 1913 Lawrence Hotel, in front of which John F. Kennedy once spoke, fell in 1968 for a stark, angular structure that has…

It was a sight my dad never forgot, but he didn’t share the experience with me until a few months before he died. It was a memory of a sultry September day in 1955, when he was the first person on the scene of a plane crash in southwest Millcreek, a suburb of Erie, PA.…

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised the level of human creativity. Autopilot no longer works and we continually have to find new ways to do old things. Take bridal showers, for example. Here you’ll learn how to plan and execute a memorable event during a pandemic. This is a hybrid model, both socially distanced for the…

Social isolation because of the COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on all of us, but the elderly, and other vulnerable people, without computers, have suffered most. They need us more than ever. Months ago, I wrote a post about how computers are destroying humanity. In The Digital Age is Killing Humanity, I discussed the challenges that…

Breast is best, but what if you’re bottle feeding a baby? Even babies who are breastfed often take bottles from a spouse, a relative, or a caregiver. When bottle feeding, there are several ways to emulate breastfeeding that benefit the infant—in both body and mind. These days, many parents and caregivers hold the infant in…

The feelings that come like a flood when mothers face the impending empty nest are universal and timeless. Whether they have stayed at home, or have enjoyed rewarding careers, many mothers feel varying degrees of loss and confusion as their children head out into the world. Recently, I wrote about what it means to be a…