Browsed by
Tag: Mom

pumpkins
‘The Man Who Kept Watch Over Pumpkins’

‘The Man Who Kept Watch Over Pumpkins’

Comments 0 Comment

A Hallowe’en treat from Mom, dated 1999. Best read out loud, I think: The Man Who Kept Watch Over Pumpkins He dubbed them Tweedledum and Tweedledeeand dreamed them huge as harvest moonsone he would carve into a castlethe other would be laughing Jack O’Lantern Extravaganza! he would cryinciting them to growhe knew their seed and soil were paramountwith sun and rainthey nursed inside the earthand bloomed above it Protecting them from thieves and varmintsthe old man guarded them in day…

Read More Read More

1916 Philip Markey Cassidy
The Royal Dublin Fusilier

The Royal Dublin Fusilier

Comments 0 Comment

Philip Cassidy didn’t start out as a member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. When he volunteered to serve in The Great War, he was a member of the 16th Division Army Cyclist Corps. Surely Philip wore this badge on his uniform cap with pride: Philip Markey Cassidy was born in Dublin, Ireland, on October 12, 1895. He was the fourth of seven children born to Daniel and Mary Jane. “Markey” was Mary Jane’s maiden name. Philip’s father, Daniel, was the…

Read More Read More

autumn blueberry bushes
‘Roots’

‘Roots’

Comments 0 Comment

There’s something very odd about pulling up stakes and moving away. Mom had never experienced this until she and Dad married. In 1973, we moved from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Carmel, Indiana. We’d only lived in Fairfield for three years and had spent many hours tending to gardens and other landscaping, as this was a brand-new house and yard. It was so nice of our Connecticut neighbor to stay in touch, especially with the news that those stubborn blueberry plants had…

Read More Read More

Card to Mom from Madeleine L'Engle
Love & blessings, Madeleine L’Engle

Love & blessings, Madeleine L’Engle

Comments 0 Comment

They were friends, Mom and Madeleine L’Engle. Dear friends. Sifting through the bulging folder of their correspondence, I can trace the history of their friendship. They met during the 1976 Midwest Writers Workshop, when Madeleine, author of A Wrinkle in Time, served on the conference faculty (Mom would go on to do the same a decade later). They became fast friends: She wrote, in part: I am very grateful that you were at the Writers’ Conference and that we spoke…

Read More Read More

Meigs Point
‘Turning Pages’

‘Turning Pages’

Comments 0 Comment

We haven’t had a poem from Mom in far too long! Here’s one from 1999: Turning Pages What is the driver turning toparked with his back to the sea I have been singing and turning pagesof the Christmas carols our son played for the family Before we left to sing in Indianawe met a man on Meigs Point herea former soldier carrying his coffeetelling about his happy lifehis Christmas shopping during this vacationhe had turned a page Below Meigs Point…

Read More Read More

lamplighter
The lamplighter

The lamplighter

Comments 0 Comment

My aunt Bunny told me this story several times. Grandma had suitors before she got serious with Grandpa, but she liked to mention one fellow in particular when she looked back on her days as a young colleen. I wasn’t sure whether to tell this story, but then realized Mom mentioned him in this poem: and yet before the great depressionbefore his father diedbefore they left the house that he was born in my father had his picture taken in…

Read More Read More

1981 Bob Caplinger print 3
The West Virginia Hillbilly

The West Virginia Hillbilly

Comments 0 Comment

Thank you for your concern about my getting a new heart. I really am eager for them to call me up and tell me to get to the hospital right away. At the same time I am full of fear and anxiety. It is a hell of a way to live for an extended period of time. I find that the best way is to get busy reading, going to movies, or even coming down here to the fisheries and…

Read More Read More

school bus
The Boy in the School Bus

The Boy in the School Bus

Comments 0 Comment

Maybe they were on their way to share a coffee and muffin and watch the waves and gulls at Meigs Point. Or perhaps they were on their way to Mass. With Dad driving, Mom could pay attention to what else was happening along the way. On this June morning in 2005, she spied an artist: Lines for the Boy in the School Bus Drawing His pad was braced against the seat before himthe pencil in his handraced to recapturethe picture…

Read More Read More

lake photo by Joshua Mayer
‘Will Winter Come’

‘Will Winter Come’

Comments 0 Comment

When I pulled this short story from a stack of Mom’s college writings, I thought of my sister-in-law Linda. As Farmer Gary and I check out the weather forecast every morning and evening, we end with a quick scroll by the temperatures in family members’ towns (we’ve added Sainte-Croix and Toomebridge recently). As we reach my brother Harry and Linda’s town in Maine, often I cry out a warning: Uh-oh! When Maine is hotter and more humid than Indiana, it’s…

Read More Read More

hot air balloon
‘Some Things I Only Did Once’

‘Some Things I Only Did Once’

Comments 0 Comment

Interesting idea: Think back on your life and then list things you only did once. Mom came up with her list two days after she turned 78. I remember hearing about a few of these, but there are definitely some mysteries. Some Things I Only Did Once Some things I only did oncetook a balloon ridemade baklavapainted our daughter’s roomtraveled to the top of a mountainand the bottom of the seaice skated in my grandmother’s drivewaychewed tobacco on the back…

Read More Read More