Ashes

Ashes

Mom shuffled along the pier stretching into the St. Lucie River beside her lifelong friend Reene Zeigler. I trailed behind, bright sun, a stiff November breeze, and memories of this sandy town where I’d lived during eighth, ninth, and tenth grades distracting me from...
Boat Daze

Boat Daze

I stare out the window of my Phoenix home office at gardenias like the ones that grew in our Miami yard where Dad built the Annie Lee. And I wonder if his naming the boat after me had been a grand gesture of his love for me. The Annie Lee was a dream Dad wrangled to...
Goodbye and Other Endings

Goodbye and Other Endings

Dad had every intention of making it to 300 like the maharishi he’d read about in a magazine. He’d outlive me if it could be done by the sheer force of his will. At 82 Dad was Mr. Carrot Juice, poster boy of healthy living. Dad hopped a plane to Guatemala—a penny...