Abigail was a curious child. She was always asking questions, always opening doors to see if there might be something mysterious or beautiful or spooky on the other side, always following a few steps behind the matrons at the orphanage to see what they were up to because around every corner an adventure might be found.

“Girl, you need to mind yer’ ( Read more... )

Gramma sat beside me on our screened porch, fanning, humming, working on her Celebrity Search-A-Word with a blue Bic and exclaiming when she found Fonda or Newman tucked among the gibberish letters.

It was July in Georgia and that meant hot, hot, hot all day and hot, hot, hot at night - just with mosquitos.  Gramma's sun-warmed skin was sweat- ( Read more... )

Like a moth to a flame...

Initially that phrase brought me images of a delicate, winged creature gliding through the darkness toward a soft glow on a woodland porch.

Then I typed it. And now I have Janet Jackson stuck in my head.
"That's the way love goes, that's the way that love gooooes..."

Ahh, my brain.
Looking forward to mining it for some ( Read more... )

"Why do we call you Black-Headed Grandma? Your hair is all grey!"

Ettis May smiled down at her great granddaughter, sitting beside her on the polka dot chenille couch. The preschooler had been happily coloring beside her while her parents, Ettis' grandson and his wife, sipped sweet tea and chatted about christenings and garden cucumbers and Cousin ( Read more... )

"Mr. Corley, it is the decision of this board that your outside privileges should be restricted only to excursions with a family member or qualified employee of the Autumn Acres Retirement Community. With the documented rise in your wandering behavior, we feel this is a necessary status change in order to ensure your safety. We will continue to ( Read more... )

The dog is asleep in my lap ( Read more... )

Just gonna leave this right here...looks like I'm back in Idol again!

Pulling through the old swinging gate, rusty metal still flecked with paint, you smile wistfully behind your windshield.

It wasn't so very long ago - no, actually it was, it was an entire decade ago - that you first came here, hesitant, expectant, a little fearful, tires crunching over the freshly poured gravel, marveling at the hordes of other ( Read more... )

Jessie breathed a sigh of relief the day the "Sold" sign went up in the yard of her childhood home. She and Jaden had moved out weeks before, but now her mom and dad could join them in their new place and they could all start over together, finally put the horror of the last few months behind them.

She'd always been her daddy's favorite. It had ( Read more... )

"I'm never having children."

Sitting on my front porch in the sharp afternoon light of a late summer's day, the look on my mother's face was one of pure sorrow.

"But, why?"

Overbright rays of sun spiked through the pine thicket around my house and left blinding patches on the needle-blanketed yard. I squinted at the contrast of dazzle and dark and ( Read more... )