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Some people may view my 5’7”, 560-pound 1936 Steinway mahogany Medium Grand piano as a beautiful instrument—which it is, sort of like admiring a favorite painting. I see it as so much more.   It has long been the connection that keeps my late father’s memory alive. He is the one who bought it for my mother in May 1955, shortly before their 13th wedding anniversary. They went to Steinway’s famous Manhattan showroom on West 57th street, an iconic place for piano lovers to see dozens of possibilities and purchased it. Once it was ensconced in my childhood home and...

Experts. We all use them whether it’s to help with our taxes, diagnose our illnesses, prescribe our medications, landscape our lawns, remodel our homes or fix our teeth. We got to thinking whether we could use this logic when forming our friendships--a team of experts each of whom offers special skills, knowledge and emotional support.   We both know how important our friends were after we each lost a spouse. Friends circled the wagons, didn’t gossip about our losses, took us out, brought us food, wine, books and candy, and most of all held our hands and tended to our broken...

(Photo: Barbara with her mother and two daughters) It started as a labor of love, and evolved, gradually, into a weekly endeavor that made me wonder if I had bitten off too much.  As my mom aged and found it harder to bake the brownies, rugelach and chocolate chip cookies we adored, I took up the mantle and dropped off a good supply at her city apartment, two hours from my home in the country.  And then as she became more infirm and less able to stand and cook even the simplest meals, I took to doing most of her...

We could write volumes about this topic. You wake up. You’re in a funk, not exactly depressed, just moving slowly as if stuck in slow motion. And as the day drags on, you feel like a dull knife. Why can’t you simply shake it off?   Sometimes a bad day is situational. You have a dentist appointment for a root canal. Ugh! You make your way to your computer and it doesn’t turn on; the server is down. You go into the kitchen and the refrigerator is leaking. You call the repairman. Then you stub your toe on a stool....

We each live in our little hermetic worlds punctuated by humdrum days. You work or volunteer or both, exercise, grocery shop, prepare meals and clean up, chat with a friend or family member either on the phone or on FB, read the news, maybe watch a favorite TV show and then fall asleep. And it’s more of the same the next day. That isn’t to say there aren’t high points in all our lives. For us, it can be when we’re researching and crafting an article we particularly like, finishing a book manuscript that we’re pleased about, hearing an article...