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Whatever is on my mind...
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Time After Time
Posted at 10:01 on 2008-Jan-22
Time isn’t just a magazine it’s a thing you can’t hold in your hands. A watch or a clock is tangible, you can feel it, see it, pick it up to examine it, you can even change it but it’s just an illusion because time continues forward regardless of what you do.
Even though time is constant it passes differently depending on the person or event. A school day for a child, waiting for a loved one to come home from active duty overseas, being on the wrong side of the bathroom door or waiting for a phone call from a new love can seem like a lifetime.
And on the other hand, your wedding day, sixteen years of watching your child grow, summer vacation, and your own mortality fly by in a heartbeat.
I’ve read that there is a chemical in your body (dopamine) that affects time perception and as you get older less of this chemical is formed and time appears to go faster. Scientists are trying to work with this but I’m not sure you can play with the nature of time.
A friend of mine had her own theory. When you’re young you have so much time in front of you it just seems endless but as you grow older you begin to realize the time you have left may be less than what you have already lived and based on simple math time speeds up.
I guess that’s what makes it even more important to spend your time wisely, because all of a sudden it may be all used up and you’ll wonder where it all went.
The last word...
Posted at 10:20 on 2008-Jan-9
The holidays are over and what little time I have has freed up a bit. My philosophical persona keeps appearing making it difficult for me to find writing topics but this morning one hit me smack between the eyes that I just couldn’t ignore.
Like many other writers I check news outlets and other bloggers on a daily basis. I was alerted to this particular story on one of my favorite blogs. The story first appeared in the New York Times.
There are many American soldiers in Iraq who blog about their activities; nothing really new there. There is one soldier however, 38-year-old Major Andrew Olmsted, who decided to write his last blog in July 2007 and have a friend post it in case of his death. He was killed in action January 3rd, 2008. You can read his last entry here.
I can be a strong person but reading his entry broke me down to a sobbing child. In this fast-paced life we rarely tell the people we love all the things that we want too. In his final written words Major Andrew Olmsted was able to do that.
He said he died doing what he loved and his last words to his wife were I love you. He was killed attempting to get the enemy to surrender so they wouldn’t have to wipe them out. The world is full of irony…
My heart is with his family and his unit still in Iraq. My thought are with all the soldiers stationed all over the globe protecting our freedoms.
Please take a moment to reflect on Major Andrew Olmsted’s last word…
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Don't Sit so Close to the TV
Posted at 09:12 on 2007-Dec-17
I had very few friends as a child. I was an outcast due to my inability to play sports and my more matured nature. My father was not the most sensitive creature in the world and my mother always seemed busy. I had two siblings but my sister was five years younger than I and my brother actually had friends.
The one best friend I did have though was the television. It was a behemoth encased in black that lived in a bedroom that I shared with my younger brother. It was black and white with tubes glowing and had to warm up. It received seven stations, the three major networks, three local stations and PBS. The remote control involved how fast I decided to get up and switch the channels. It was a hand-me-down from some relative in the Bronx who could actually afford a new TV.
I would get up in the morning and switch it on to watch cartoons while I dressed for school. I would come home from school and watch 1960’s reruns while doing my homework until dinner was ready. After dinner I would vegetate there during the family hour, when there still was one, until bed time and while in bed I would turn it on with the sound off to the same station my parents were watching in the next room. Saturday mornings were of course special because of the omnipotence of cartoons. Occasionally we would all board mom and dad’s king size bed for family watching of Emergency or Chips. My mother often told me I sat to close to the television but never pulled me from its trance-like airwaves. I could recite the TV Guide schedule at will and was proud of it.
The Brady’s, the Partridges, the Cunningham’s were all my virtual friends. I could always rely on them to be there for me when I needed somebody. Captain Stubbing took me to new places while The Wonderful World of Disney gave me magic to believe in. Archie Bunker gave me adult insights while Fonzie watched over Milwaukee and I hoped me as well. I Love Lucy made me laugh while Little House on the Prairie gave me family. All these shows and many, many more contributed to my future being.
While I was in high school we got our first color TV. It was placed in my parent’s bedroom and was mostly off limits to us kids. My senior year we finally got cable and were exposed to thirty stations which seemed to good to be true. Today I have friends and family that do not involve a remote control and teach me about the same things just in live action.
My old friends on the little screen are still there for me though. The old and the new continue to teach me, keep me informed, make me laugh and most importantly are always there at a moments notice.
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Over the Falls in a Barrel
Posted at 07:45 on 2007-Dec-10
It was a trip to my grandparent’s house in Batavia, NY that changed the date of our wedding anniversary. We were sitting around the table after dinner discussing our wedding plans and telling Oma and Opa that we had already saved up ten thousand dollars for our wedding which was just over a year away. Opa, being the staunch, rigid German that he was, stated that it was quite a lot of money and maybe we should elope instead and use the money for a house.
Well this was a revelation, eloping had never occurred to us. It seemed to make perfect sense. The two of us talked about it the rest of the night off and on. We woke early the next morning and my fiancé Lisa looked at me and said, “so are we doing this?” I asked if she was sure, she assured me she was and the decision had been made.
We gathered our things, wrote a note that we were going to Niagara Falls and that we’d see them tomorrow and we were off. An hour later we were at the falls and found a motel room. Not knowing how to go about this we checked the phone book and noticed a listing for the chamber of commerce. They instructed us to go to city hall for a license which we had to wait overnight for and there was no blood test. They also scheduled the ceremony for an inside arboretum adjacent to the mall.
We had some time so we shopped for wedding clothes since we were unprepared for this moment when we drove to New York State in the first place. Lisa chose a simple white dress with back polka dots and I picked a new blue shirt with complementing tie. Next we walked to the Falls. There was so much electricity in the air. We had a secret that no one else knew about.
The sun was slowly falling over the cascading water as we walked hand in hand on the Canadian side to the rooftop restaurant. After a starry-eyed dinner we proceeded back to our quarters to await our upcoming nuptials.
We rose early the next morning to have breakfast even though we both had butterflies. We were to be at the arboretum at 10:00 A.M. and we were ten minutes early. The judge was already there and had us complete our paperwork while the Chamber of Commerce representative went into the mall to wrangle up two witnesses, a mother and daughter from Canada.
It was all very quaint. Two strangers for witnesses pulled from the mall, a judge in a black robe chanting the vows, a custodian taking pictures and us standing in the middle of a small pond on an island-type structure in disbelief that we would be married in several heartbeats. A small crowd grew around us and all of a sudden the judge said, “you may kiss the bride,” and it was over.
Congratulations came from all around. Well wishers who just happened through at that time of the morning shook our hands and smiled. Slowly our congregation dispersed to continue with their daily routine. Our daily routine had now changed forever. We strolled around as husband and wife for a bit breathing in our new status. We gazed upon the falls one last time before taking our exit from our secret marriage grotto.
We drove back to my grandparents and gave them the news but they had already anticipated it. All the other family had no idea and over the next several days it would be fun telling them and the friends, all of whom thought we were joking at first, even with the marriage certificate in hand.
We did buy a house with the saved money and our first child was born less than one month before our first anniversary. Most people want to share their wedding day with their loved ones and we thought we wanted to also but that special memory just for the two of us lives in only our hearts and we decided we liked it that way.
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Life giving you trouble? Just reboot!
Posted at 07:44 on 2007-Dec-3
I’ve been thinking so much about life lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that we should parallel computers more in our lives.
Let’s face it, life is just about changing or upgrading programs and hardware anyway. When you’re first born you're the latest and greatest model right out of the box but a week later you're outdated and new models are already in production.
You start out with Baby version 1 which has horrible bodily function outputs. It would behoove IBM or Microsoft to develop an upgrade to slow or stop this process. While they’re at it this program is very noisy and doesn’t really do much but continually use resources.
Toddler v2.1 has many entertaining games included but they become redundant quickly. Also the motion hardware needs a stop switch.
Reliable virus software should be installed at this point but chances are you’ll catch something anyway. There is a good chance that Baby v1 may run again randomly at this stage or any stage in the future. To prevent this use the anti-spywear version of snip-snip.
This is an excellent time to install College-fund v1.3 (see College v18.1 below) and make sure you upgrade each year and after every new install of Baby v1.
Child v4.8 spends several hours a day downloading new data at a central remote location and will run remedial data almost every evening. Focus is an issue with this program. It often jumps from task to task without ever completing any and continually has question prompts.
Preteen v10.5 is where trouble can begin. Interaction between sibling and parenting modules can become strained and this can slow down all household programs. Bathing v2.1 should be upgraded at this point and the back-talk driver should be uninstalled if at all possible.
Teen v13.2 is the longest timeframe where upgrades are not available but desperately needed. There will be different issues here depending on if you have baby boy or baby girl installed but regardless puberty v12.8 will install at random times and will never be configured correctly. A fix has never been found for this bug. Outburst v8.6b, dating v9.8 and I-Hate-You v10.7, among others, will become activated at arbitrary times with no observable patterns, this is due to the Hormones add-in that is embedded in this program.
College v18.1 has hundreds of options and varies in cost from state to state but is usually a pay as you go system. In most cases the program will run remotely for long stretches of time and will only run after payment has been made. Masters v21.2 and PHD v24.7 are expensive upgrades but will most likely assist in the future upgrade to employment 25.6 (see below).
Adult v25.4 is installed and uninstalled randomly after college v18.0 and sometimes during. Often times it can take months, sometimes years, before the install is complete and configured correctly and it needs constant tweaking. One other application is required to run Adult v25.4 and that is Employment v25.6 (unless Wealth v2.5a has been installed sometime since Baby v1.0).
There are hundreds of options, upgrades, drivers and add-ins for this program not to mention peripheral devices. Two popular options for this program are Lover v2.9 which can be installed multiple times and upgraded to Spouse v3.2.
If either of these programs fails to run as expected be very careful uninstalling Lover v2.9 and/or Spouse v3.2 especially if you have installed Wealth v2.5a because you will lose all your data particularly if you have multiple installs. And of course either of these programs may install Baby v1.
Retirement v65.2 is the ultimate goal of all previous programs. If all other programs have run successfully then this application will install automatically and with no glitches. That almost never happens though. Most people when running Employment v25.6 disregard the suggested settings of the 401k add-in spec. If that’s the case you will be forced to down grade to a smaller machine and give up some peripheral devices besides being forced to install SSN v67.3.
Ending a program prematurely can result in loss of all data sharing on the network. Peripheral devices are optional. Please be advised that all these programs can be run more than once and can be run simultaneously although it is recommended that as few as possible be run at the same time.
Good luck and if all else fails, just reboot!
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Merry Freaken Christmas…
Posted at 11:00 on 2007-Nov-26
I would very much like to thank the wonderful women in the green Mercedes SUV who stole my parking space this past Friday at the mall. An older gentleman in a baby-blue boat decided to back out of his slanted parking space the wrong way forcing me to back up. I dutifully did the reverse thing and he navigated his ship out and into the stream of traffic. At this point the wicked witch of the West pulls into the empty spot from the other side of the street right in front of me and my mini-van blinker blazing away and the security guard.
Before I even say a word my children are telling me to calm down because they know Vesuvius is approaching eruption quickly. I honk and open my window yelling and she just calmly sits there waiting for me to go away. The rent-a-cop comes within earshot and I tell him what happened and he says it’s been happening all day just ignore it. Ignore it? What happened to Peace on earth and good will towards man?
I decided it was best for all concerned that I not exit my vehicle and just push on. I proceed around the circle and now approached my spot from the opposite direction. The bride of Frankenstein had disembarked from her non-American four-wheeled broom. I took one last vocal opportunity and barked out to her that she has a wonderful holiday attitude and to have a nice day.
The unfortunate thing is even now, three days later, I’m still angry enough to write about it and I have no doubt that scroogezilla forgot the incident the minute she entered the mall. All it did was raise my blood pressure and worry the kids. Aren’t the holidays stressful enough without having to deal with people who shouldn’t be allowed out in polite society?
I must admit though, for braving black Friday with three children in tow that was the only event to blot our very fine day. We patronized half a dozen stand-alone stores and the mall. We had a nice lunch and walked away with several killer deals. All in all it was a great family day and a wonderful start to the holiday season. Despite the Grinch and her wicked ways…
I'm sure I'm forgetting something...
Posted at 07:40 on 2007-Nov-19
When I was younger I used to get very upset with my parents for forgetting things like food that I disliked, the dates of school events or the year I was born. I would like to formally and publicly apologize to my parents before I forget that I should do it.
Age is a funny thing. As you get older and experience the same issue as your parents you began to understand things that to younger minds seem foreign and obscure. Calling my children by the wrong names is a daily occurrence in my house but when I was a child I couldn’t for the life of me understand why my father couldn’t get such a simple thing correct. Sometimes now I can’t even remember my own name.
When I was in the fifth grade I was bullied so badly in art class one day that when we got back to our regular room I just grabbed my coat and left. I walked home and sat on our front steps. For some reason my father had come early from work that day and thought I was home for lunch. In those days you could still go home for lunch. It wasn’t even close to my lunch time and I was so upset that he didn’t remember that. I can’t even recall what I packed my daughter for lunch this morning let alone what time she eats at school.
My mind is packed with thoughts like, did I remember to buy milk? Do I have to pick up Joey today? Did I pay the mortgage? Those are just some of the household issues rattling around in my brain at any given moment. Then there’s work and social (if I’m lucky) plus family obligations to recollect and act on.
As life goes on we are called upon to remember more and more and then even more. Our minds are so full of data that I wish I could just download it all! For a parent there aren’t enough electronic devices in the world to keep it all straight. Every year I understand my parent’s inabilities a little more because I’m living through the same situations and realizing they are not inabilities, just the stresses of everyday life.
My father not wanting to play with me after work sometimes had nothing to do with me, it was because he was exhausted. My mother not remembering when my band concert was had nothing to do with me, it was because she had two other children and a job and her brain was full of more pressing matters right at that moment.
Children of course, after a certain age, remember every word you say. This is dangerous when you promise them something and then don’t remember it an hour later. They tend to get upset and think you lack common sense and intelligence for forgetting these simple things because they should be the center of your universe and don’t you ever forget it, but you probably will. This explains why you suddenly get smarter when they turn twenty-five. At that point they are just starting to become you.
Children view adulthood as a fantastic life of carefree fun, staying up late and having endless money. It’s almost a shame they have to grow up and have that image shattered into a billion pieces.
You age and you grow to realize that you remember and embrace the important things. When you first held them the day they were born, their first day of kindergarten, their driver’s test and countless memories in between. So you called them by the wrong names occasionally when they were kids, so you forgot an important date or two or twenty-seven, so you forgot to pick them up from school one day, the important thing is that you never forgot to love them. That’s what they will remember.
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What happens to the other sock?
Posted at 04:52 on 2007-Nov-11
It never fails, I put two socks in the dryer and only one comes out. Currently in my dresser drawer there are at least a half a dozen orphaned socks of all colors, no discrimination here. Common sense says that the sock is most likely stuck to another piece of clothing via static cling or maybe it was sucked into the lint trap and is stuck in the exhaust hose.
They can’t all be there though so where do the rest go? Do they run away on there own? Is there a hidden sock commune somewhere in Idaho where they darn each other and stay odor free? Other clothes in the basket create a diversion in the laundry room and a sock slips away unnoticed catching a ride on a laundry truck to reach its freedom.
Maybe the dryer itself creates an environment that alters the space-time continuum. The heat combined with the rotation of the drum triggers just the right resonating wave length for small objects, socks, to be transported to other dimensions.
Along that same theory it may be that the socks are still there. They are just not visible to the human eye due to harmonic changes in the material’s molecules.
Lint is another possibility. It could be that the obnoxious socks get the snot beaten out of them and all that’s left is lint. Also dress socks may be more vulnerable to this than athletic socks. There’s also a chance that older socks may decide it’s time to end it all and just disintegrate into lint.
Perhaps it’s not even the dryer. Why are we all so quick to place blame with the dryer? Maybe the problem originates in the washing machine. There has always been a feud among these two appliances. It could be the washing machine attempting to overshadow its long time nemesis. It may be time to exonerate the dryer!
Yep, the cost of doing laundry is a sock gone astray every few loads, consumed by the gods of clean attire, one of life’s little mysteries to ponder in those odd moments of life.
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Too Many Books, Too Little Time…
Posted at 07:20 on 2007-Nov-4
I am a chain-reading readaholic. You could say that I am somewhat of a bibliophile. The minute I put one book down I immediately pick up another. It keeps my mind sharp and increases my vocabulary. Also as a writer it gives me new insights from other author’s perspectives.
As a reader though books allow me to go to the wizarding world of Hogwarts (J.K. Rowling) or out to sea with Dirk Pitt (Clive Cussler) or investigate crimes with Alex Delaware (Jonathan Kellerman). Books allow me the pleasure of escaping everyday stress and enjoy a relaxed hour in my hammock or recliner.
On occasion I get to meet an author. By a strange series of events I recently had the great pleasure of meeting with Saira Rao in a small New York City coffee shop. She recently penned her first novel "Chambermaid" which I discovered after reading a yahoo article that she had written.
She's a lovely woman who graciously gave me an hour of her time along with agreeing to read three chapters of my own unfinished novel.
Saira creates wonderfully memorable characters trying to do an impossible job for a lunatic judge who I truly hope does not actually exist in our justice system. Shelia Raj, or is it Sheeba? Sheera? Has just graduated from Columbia law school and is clerking for the Honorable Federal Judge, Helga (rilly, rilly busy) Friedman in Philadelphia. Sheila and her office mates are often called into the "Torture Chamber" to have their inadequacies skewered and barbequed for Judge Friedman's enjoyment. Intertwined in the chaotic work schedule Shelia's personal life takes a nose dive but recovery happens in the form of an ending that was exactly what I was looking for.
Saira's characters are fun to read, the interactions are witty, sarcastic and often plain outrageous. She paints a picture of the American Judicial System that only insiders get to see, and for good reason.
"Chambermaid" is a wonderful read that will leave you wanting a sequel. I know I want to see what happens next...
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Spare Me
Posted at 09:00 on 2007-Oct-30
Have you ever wanted something so much in your life that it just wounded you mercilessly every time you failed? When I was eleven years old I was asked by a friend to be a substitute on his Saturday morning bowling league. It sounded like fun and I loved bowling so I accepted. Little did I know then the thirty year odyssey I was about to start.
Whether bowling takes athletic ability or not is up for debate but since I had none anyway it was a mute point, however it does take skill. I started out using house bowling balls and at some point inherited my father’s hard rubber ball and shoes from the sixties. It was coal black, the finger holes and shoes were too big and the bag was hard plastic. No one ever mentioned to me that I could have the finger holes plugged and redrilled.
I used this ball throughout the rest of the Saturday morning leagues over the next several years with marginal improvement. But in the back of my head I also dreamed that I could have the ability to go pro one day. It’s not like it was baseball or football or something totally unobtainable like that, I mean it was bowling for Pete’s sake. Then I went to high school.
I was a counselor at the town day camp the summer before my freshman year. Lone and behold the man who ran the camp happened to also be the bowling coach at the high school, George Moran. I proudly told him my average was a 111 and, with a straight face, he told me that his bowlers generally had higher averages than that. I had quite the wake up call when I attended my first practice and every other team member scored 180 or above. These were teenagers, how dare they be so good.
Suddenly my goals had changed but I was not discouraged. Now I just had to try and catch up, still using my archaic ball while the rest of the team had equipment from that decade. Mr. Moran gave guidance and encouragement which helped me climb to a 155 average by graduation day. Alas though that was barley enough to obtain backup status. Technically I was on the team but I never bowled accept in practice.
I did not let this deter my bowling fate however! My dream was still alive, I was still young I would fool… um I mean tell myself. I went to work for a bank and joined their league at a bowling center where a buddy of mine, Eric, worked. He coached me a bit and gave me one of his old balls which fit me better than my dads. I became much more consistent and my average began to rise. I seemed to reach a plateau around 166 and couldn’t break past it but I kept rolling along.
Soon after I won $250.00 in a contest at work and was able to purchase a new ball, bag and shoes. Now I was set. Call the pro tour because I’ll be there in just a few weeks. My new ball gleamed under the fluorescent light like a golden orb ready for battle, one I would not win. Oh my new gear did bestow on me higher pin counts in the 178 range but life did not have my dreams in its plans.
These past two months I’ve been bowling with my two boys in a junior/adult league. It was the first time I have been involved in organized bowling for seven years due to unforeseen circumstances. Again with a hand-me-down ball I went full tilt with my pro career dream still looking over my shoulder; even it was the senior tour eventually. To my surprise if you don’t pick up a bowling ball for eight years it tends to do unexpected things such as dive right for the gutter or perform miraculous feats to leave splits. My body also doesn’t follow orders as it did in the past and joint pain appears where there was none before.
It’s hard for people to understand why it means so much to me. It was something that may not have been totally out of grasp, something that with the proper time and effort I felt I may have been able to do so that I could be above average. This past summer teenagers and younger were out bowling me again and the pins continued to tease me by almost falling down.
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It Could Never Happen To Us...
Posted at 05:20 on 2007-Oct-21
It could never happen to us I said to myself in October of 1996 when my wife Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer. It could never happen to us I said to myself as I stood at my wife's graveside on Christmas Eve 1999 holding the hands of my boys, five and eight. It could never happen to us I said to myself as a policeman drove into my driveway recently...
On Monday August 13, 2007 my fiancé, Stacy Stubbs, lost her life in Peoria, AZ when a selfish, immature, unthinking, irresponsible teenager hit her head on while sending a text message and attempting to control her vehicle simultaneously. I would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support, food, childcare, memorial fund (a Godsend since Stacy was not eligible for life insurance), etc. It's a great relief in this overwhelming time to have such support from the community.
Since this wholly avoidable tragedy I have discovered that texting while driving is not illegal in Arizona. Actually it's not illegal in much of the country. HB-2129 (http://www.azleg.gov/DocumentsForBill.asp?Bill_Number=HB2129) is an Arizona law to ban texting while driving which was defeated in this past session. I will wonder for the rest of my life if passage of this bill may have saved Stacy's life...
Laws however are no substitute for common sense. I've been watching carefully and the amount of people yakking on cell phones, applying makeup, not using blinkers and speeding among other things is just appalling! Your car is not just a mode of transportation, it's also a two-ton weapon which deserves respect.
Everyone has asked me what they can do to help. Right now, this second, as you read this I would like to ask you to do two things:
1. Take a pledge to your self right now, out loud:
I will not text while driving. I will not use my cell phone while driving without a hands free device. I will use common sense while I'm driving. I realize it is a privilege to drive and other innocent souls, as well as my self, depend on my total concentration of the road and in the handling of my vehicle.
Talk to your teenage drivers about this, your neighbors, friends and family. Whoever will listen. Have them take the pledge as well.
2. Tell your local legislators that you support any and all bills dealing with hands free cell phone use and texting while driving. It doesn't take long via e-mail to contact them all, I beg you.
Congratulations to the Phoenix City Council who voted just last month to ban text messaging while driving. Now many of us would think that this is just common sense; however, that is not the case, especially among young people. It seems that Stacy's untimely death pushed the right people over the edge to take some kind of action. It’s kind of like the intersection where officials won’t install a traffic signal until enough people die.
New laws will never make us all safe but perhaps you may save the life of a six-year-old girl's mother from a small town in rural Arizona. Oh wait, it's too late for that...
You Can Take it to The Bank
Posted at 01:26 on 2007-Oct-14
It was a bright fall day in 1989 when my yet-to-be bride, Lisa, strolled in the door of Broadway Bank in Paterson, NJ and asked me for a deposit slip. She was wearing a tan raincoat with the belt tied simply in the front. Her chestnut hair tied back in a ponytail and her blue eyes sparkling like a placid lake. What blew me away though was her smile. It lit the entire lobby like a thousand stars and I imagined it was just for me.
I handed her the deposit slip silently and she proceeded to the tellers counter. I hurried back to my desk and called the teller at that window. Lisa was leaning on the teller’s counter and both her hands were visible so I asked the teller to see if she had a ring on. The teller misunderstood me and asked Lisa if she was married instead. Lisa turned around to examine the lobby and desk area and asked, “who wants to know?” Without missing a beat the teller pointed right at me and said, “that guy over there.”
Before she had a chance to focus on me I was under my desk trying to dig a hole to China. Lisa was very shy so rather than confront me she left, looking over at my desk several times before finally going. After having words with the teller (who later on I was very grateful too…) I broke several federal privacy laws by pulling her signature card from the files and getting her office phone number.
She answered the phone and I explained who I was. I said, “since the teller already embarrassed me would you like to go for lunch?” We had our lunch date and then the movie date and then the dinner date and eventually the wedding date.
We were married nine and half years when she passed away in December of 1999 due to breast cancer. She was thirty-six years old. I miss her dearly every day, especially when I look at my two boys, now thirteen and sixteen. In the immediate days after her passing I had to tell the boys the “bank story” over and over, among others, as their bedtime stories. It was their favorite. It’s my favorite. It helps keep her alive in my mind and spirit when I need her most.
Broadway Bank is defunct now and we no longer live in New Jersey but I can see that bank lobby clear as day when I close my eyes. Lisa’s smile will live on in our sons and someday their smiles will create memories for some lucky girls. Memories are the key to the past and many times you have to unlock that door to see the future.
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