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I am glad my kids like me. Parenting is scary. You want to do the best, but sometimes doubt creeps in. Children do not come with a manual. My husband died when my daughter was 12 years old and my [...]

I am glad I was raised in a small town. Ames, New York is still the smallest incorporated village in New York State. When I lived there in the ’50’s and ’60’s, about 200 [...]

I am glad I have three sisters in my family. I am number two of 4 girls born in a five-year time span. Mom and Dad provided the main course of my DNA. Good genes and strong moral values sustained [...]

I am glad to perpetuate my mother’s tradition of organization and dedication to a well-set table. In the upcoming days, and sometimes weeks, of a large family gathering, mom polished [...]

The glad game was my favorite part of the 1960 Disney movie Pollyanna. In this classic film, based on the 1913 book of the same name by Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna, a perky, flaxen-haired young [...]

The two hinged sides of the small bivalve rested in an open position on the sand. Connected by a moist ligament, her identical shells faced one another. Even though her tenant vacated its home, [...]

The shell Craig picked up was the biggest in my collection. I happily added it to the others. When Craig came into our family, I gained a son-in-law, a husband to my daughter, a brother-in-law to [...]

I picked up the surviving sliver and asked, “Where are the other pieces?” I was once broken too. Loss separated me from the life I had with another. I turned inward. There, a little [...]

She was known as the Queen of the Sea. Years of salty waves pitted and scuffed her once smooth ebony shell. All of her inhabitants moved out.  Her spiral interior is empty. I pushed away the sand [...]

One by one, my friend Wendy rescued the shell family from the shallow water and brought them to my hands for safekeeping. Ocean Whisper: When I am given an opportunity to extend my hand to a [...]