Shortly after my mother’s 82nd birthday, her over-beating heart, the one that kept time with the chaos of her family and broke with each disappointment of her sons' and daughters’ losses, that organ that normally flushed oxygen and blood to her flesh, tightened and stopped. But I would say that Mom’s heart began the giving-up-process … Continue reading Anselma Cortéz Sanchez Guzman

September 2021: New England trek I’m posting live from Massachusetts having arrived only yesterday, while starting this post on September 3rd in between packing and taking care of last-minute details. I chose the annual Hookversary, the anniversary of Hook’s passing, his leaving, as the launch to this month’s trek along the United States’ northeastern seaboard: … Continue reading Hookversaries and Hurricanes

Part of it feels like Hallelujah, and you’ll think that’s a bad thing but it is not. Hallelujah …  Halle-lujah … And wouldn’t he laugh to think that a holy song would be sung in his honor. Except, he was not disrespectful, not in that way. Irreverent, yes, but not without manners, not intentionally, never … Continue reading No Victory March

Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, 2015. (Photography by Patty VanLandeghem) For the last 16 years, this had been my signature hello after entering whatever abode we inhabited. I would call out to her as she meowed back, scolding me for leaving for any length of time. I once used this soothing comfort to entice my walking … Continue reading Como estas, chica Gatita, qué paso?

We were at a colleague's Texas wedding in the backyard of Hill's Cafe on South Congress in Austin. This was our first night out since his return from seven weeks in the jungles of Trinidad, his annual summer research trek.  Before he left, I believed that I would welcome the break from the exhaustive work … Continue reading A Memory from the Summer of 2008