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The snows of Minnesota were legendary in my mother’s tales of childhood winters. Swirling snowstorms she and her sisters would walk through to get to school, ice skating on frozen lakes and parking lots. Magical white Christmases, where they shared some of their best memories before their mother was stolen away by breast cancer at the tender age of 33, leaving my mother and her twin, Martha at 12, my aunt Sandy at age 8 and aunt Judy who was barely 6. It was my mom who taught me to make snow angels and she would share stories of how …Read the rest of the story…

If anyone has ever known the depths of my heart, it was my Aunt Trisha. She was my mother’s sister, but she was a mother to me. In her early childhood, Trisha developed a rare bone disease and was told she wouldn’t live to see ten years old. Boy, did she prove them wrong. She was full of spunk and liked doing that. Her house was my home. I spent more time there growing up than I did in my own house. She gave me a soft, safe place to land. During my teenage years, a lot of our time …Read the rest of the story…

March 31st always felt like a national holiday in our family. On this day in 1951, Mom and Dad said their “I do’s” and thus began the story of a partnership and a family. As a kid, I was always aware that this was a special day because my parents were very good about celebrating their relationship and acknowledging their love for each other. I recall the sappy, often corny, cards Dad would give Mom…and the tender notes she would write to him. The flowers, dinners out, or weekends away…the love expressed, not just on their anniversary, but throughout their …Read the rest of the story…