Cat Rescue (true short story)
When the author's youngest son asked "Mom, now can we get a kitten?" as her children adjusted to a looming divorce, little did she know just how valuable this tiny animal would become. As the door then cracked open to allow for more feline companions, the realization struck that sometimes it's the animals we share our lives with who end up rescuing us instead. The author, a nationally published and award-winning essayist, has written frequently about her children, dogs, horses, and of late, the family cats. This saga of two extraordinary cats--Smokey and The Meatball--will warm your heart, lift your spirit, and make you misty-eyed for the pets you have known and loved in your own life.
When the author's youngest son asked "Mom, now can we get a kitten?" as her children adjusted to a looming divorce, little did she know just how valuable this tiny animal would become. As the door then cracked open to allow for more feline companions, the realization struck that sometimes it's the animals we share our lives with who end up rescuing us instead. The author, a nationally published and award-winning essayist, has written frequently about her children, dogs, horses, and of late, the family cats. This saga of two extraordinary cats--Smokey and The Meatball--will warm your heart, lift your spirit, and make you misty-eyed for the pets you have known and loved in your own life.
The Paper Plate Rebellion (short story)
A modern feminist fable from the kitchen table! From the age of five, Sandra was fascinated, enthralled and obsessed with the beauty and artistry of fine china, starting with her tiny Blue Willow tea set. Through the years, she applied those qualities to her life with great success, through high school and college, marriage to her high-school sweetheart and suburban motherhood. However, under every perfect, tempered surface, some cracks still inevitably reside. And when a family emergency causes Sandra’s porcelain cup to finally runneth over with stress and exhaustion, major changes are in store for the family…and most of all for Sandra.
shors
The Wedding Dress (short story)
A year after her divorce, empty-nester Carolyn Bannister sets out to empty her son's closet...and finds the sealed box containing her wedding dress from three decades before. What to do? Give it to charity, still unopened? Open it and confront a painful history? A surprise visit from Carolyn's daughter tips the balance in this uplifting short story, and the two women, each facing different paths in their lives, draw strength and hope from the past.
The Wedding Dress (short story)
A year after her divorce, empty-nester Carolyn Bannister sets out to empty her son's closet...and finds the sealed box containing her wedding dress from three decades before. What to do? Give it to charity, still unopened? Open it and confront a painful history? A surprise visit from Carolyn's daughter tips the balance in this uplifting short story, and the two women, each facing different paths in their lives, draw strength and hope from the past.
The Last Christmas Tree (short story)
With her kids gone for Christmas and her final divorce hearing barely a month away, Leslie Taylor has never felt less generosity in her heart as the holiday approaches in this seasonal short story. Her fireplace is cold, her tree is dark and bare, and her heart is frozen. But when a winter storm strands her soon-to-be-ex husband out at her place on Christmas Eve, Leslie finds that second chances aren't just the stuff of fairy tales. And when a pair of strangers find their way to her door in the middle of the night, more Christmas "magic" happens.