After my husband’s passing, I wrote “thank yous“ for the wonderful condolence messages, and as was my habit, signed both our names. I soon heard from concerned friends that I wasn’t facing reality. “What reality?” I protested. “I am our secretary; he always left it to me.”

However, he did compose one note that I cherish. He wrote it on the day of our second daughter’s birth, and I have read the note at the naming of each of my great grandchildren.

“Thank you, dear G-d,”

My grandfather, like my grandfather's father and all the men before or after him in my family, is a fisherman. Not just any kind of fisherman, though. There's the fishermen who fish on the beach, off the dock, or off a boat, and then there's the fishermen who own party boats, capable of taking out crowds of 75-100 to go fishing during the summer and early fall. My grandfather was the latter.

When my grandfather's father was starting out in life (I'm saying his 30s)he bought a boat an

One of my favorite TV shows is about two decades older than I. The cast was on its second televised reunion by the time I was born. I posted these thoughts about Happy Days here because I know they will resonate far more with those who grew up with or had children that watched the series the first time around. This teenager saw her first episode while home sick in 8th grade; with the help of her DVR she was soon hooked.

Happy Days was an idealistic, altruistic show that aimed to be

A pall fell over our country just weeks before Christmas when twenty innocent victims, some no older than ten, lost their lives in yet another senseless shooting. Over the last few years, I’ve asked myself time and again, when did this violence begin…and more importantly, why? For me, growing up took place in a simpler, gentler time. School and safety were synonymous. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I became a teacher. I always loved school!
Over the years, I witnessed our sc

Hello All,

Stage of Life is proud to announce its latest endeavor - the development of the first mobile storytelling game! For the last three months, we have been putting our creative efforts into drafting Writing Race, a multiplayer story writing game for Apple iPhone where friends will collaboratively (or competitively) write a story together using their mobile phone.

Our idea to expand Stage of Life’s literacy initiative to the mobile realm began as some scribbling on

Is that all there is? and then DIE?
I don't think so.....thats what I thought when I was a teen.....then HE TOUCHED ME! Yes, I was blown away when I was on drugs....I was 20 , a college drop out and making pizzas for something to do. I was drinking daily to escape the emptiness of my existence. Sure, it was a facade that I was "partying". I was miserable and God knew it. He was gracious enough to know when to intervene. I was busted a few weeks earlier for having a party with some pot at m

My grandmother recently had a heart attack. About six months ago, she was routinely doing chores and cooking food for my family in India, when she fell to the floor and started having heart pains. My aunt and uncle quickly took her to the clinical practitioner a few doors over and asked what had just happened. The doctor told them she had just had a heart attack! What was amazing was that even with the heart attack, she was able to walk to the doctor’s office. Nevertheless, my grandmother was t

Raised in Eastern Europe or possibly the Russian Empire, my grandmother could get by in a handful of languages. I don’t know about the other languages, but her English was heavily accented. That fit in just fine when and where I grew up in Upstate New York. Many grandparents and more than a few parents were first generation immigrants.

Our small city bore no resemblance to New York City. There were no neighborhood concentrations of immigrants from any one country or conversant in an

When I was young, we lived in the inner city. I had a great time growing up but it wasn’t without its challenges. I remember living in my neighbor as a youth, there was this street not too far from house that we weren’t allowed to cross. I never knew what was beyond that street but I always knew that there was more to life than just my neighborhood. Don’t ask me how, but I knew that there was so much more to life and so much more I needed to see.
I remember sitting and talking with my mot

Hi, I am new to stages of life. I blog at The Empty Nest Express http://theemptynestexpress.com). I'm a fairly new happily married empty nester with two little grandangels that I watch one day a week. At times I have guest bloggers and am looking for some single parents who are now empty nesters who might like to briefly - 3-4 paragraphs or so, share their challenges and/or new adventures. If you would be interested drop my a line on my blog - you can use the contact form. I look forward to get