Family

Last weekend, out-of-town relatives were visiting and wanted to go to the beach while they were here. It’s always interesting for us to see our Presque Isle State Park in northwestern Pennsylvania through fresh eyes. We grew up with the lake and beaches and often take them for granted. The older we get, though, the…

Highly respected and iconic actor, Glenn Close, gave a heartfelt tribute to her mother at the 2019 Golden Globe ceremony as she accepted the award for best actress in a drama for her role in The Wife. While I agree with her beliefs about women following their dreams, I think that her message might be misinterpreted…

Grenades, especially hand grenades, are devices of war that most of us are familiar with, although mostly associated with World War II, in film and television, rather than World War I, also known as the Great War, World War, or the War to End All Wars. It was with World War I that great advances…

Lady Bird earned five Oscar nominations in 2018, and when I say earned, I mean earned. I’d also say it was robbed of wins, but that would begrudge the winners. Lady Bird operates on many levels that can speak to just about anyone watching.  For myself, I can relate to the mother’s character, Marion McPherson (Laurie Metcalf). When…

The past few years have marked a century since the war that promised to end all wars. We know that the world didn’t learn its lesson, and so the Great War became World War I. This is the story of Russell Silverthorn, Lee Silverthorn, and Josef Wäschle, my great uncles who fought on opposite sides…

The other morning, to occupy myself during the mind-numbing task of lunch packing, I tuned my SiriusXM app to The Catholic Channel and then, EWTN, because my usual morning program was taking a break. As a “Cradle Catholic,” I was surprised to hear on “Morning Glory” that it is not proper to decorate for Christmas until Christmas Eve, rather than right…

My husband is quite the genealogist. He’s always following hints on Ancestry.com, scrolling through old, imaged documents, and updating his Italian family tree. We even traveled to Italy a few years ago to walk the same narrow streets his grandparents did at the beginning of the 20thcentury. Recently, a distant relative from Cranston, RI, contacted…

Many folks express disdain for the commercialization of Christmas. Some resent the hijacking of commerce for the last quarter of each year. Others just can’t wait for it all to be over. Me? The Christmas season is my favorite. Here are seven things Christmas gives me the excuse to do each year. So, there you have it—seven…

For more than a decade, I’ve traveled the same route between northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio, first as the parent of a college prospect, and most recently, as a newbie grand-mère. I’ve often remarked that one does not need to steer the wheel between here and there; the road is so straight. So, last Sunday…

Do you like the feeling of cool, refreshing water on your skin and the sights and sounds of nature all round you? You might like the list of seven swimming holes, I found in the June 2015 Better Homes & Gardens (pg. 153). Here they are: 1. Ohiopyle State Park, PA I love that this place was…