HEADSTONE

Today, New Year’s Eve day, is the second anniversary of my mother’s death. Last spring I drove again to the distant cemetery that she’d chosen as her final resting place.

In my journal I wrote:

Today I went to visit my mom’s grave at the Sacramento Valley Veterans’ Cemetery near Dixon. At her burial, I could only stand and watch from the road as a machine lowered her coffin into the ground on a dirt slope that hadn’t yet been covered…

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UNDAUNTED

I never did finish my thought in my last blog, did I?—when I said, “Arielle made a pair of…” Actually, she had a surprise for me when she came over to decorate the tree, one that also requires a backstory:

When she was a sophomore in high…

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SMELLY SUITCASE

SMELLY SUITCASE

Ella is home and trying to decide whether to lug her smelly suitcase directly over to our temporary storage room, rather than let it stink up the apartment—which requires a little backstory, I realize:

The kids came over for our annual…

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DOLL CLOTHES MONTAGE

DOLL CLOTHES MONTAGE

This was my first effort to photograph one of my doll dresses, back when virtually all the Madame Alexander shoes were this flat-footed design and came in, maybe, three colors. I later replaced the rather clunky heart necklace with a purple flower broach, since the...

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TRADITION – Part II

TRADITION – Part II

Also from A Patchwork Memoir:

Last night, as I sat trimming a doll sleeve with delicate lace, using the finest needle I could find—and only half-listening to the succession of TV programs Ella was watching—I told her how…

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TRADITION – Part I

TRADITION – Part I

One Christmas I decided to buy myself an 8-inch Madame Alexander Wendy doll. I’d been eyeing a display of them for years at Mr. Mopps’ toy store. But they’re collectors’ dolls—for me, an extravagance, I’d told myself…

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