In my new novel, The Red Dress, my main character’s mother used to be a librarian before she developed Alzheimer’s and ended up in a nursing home. Now, she’s fond of correcting everyone’s grammar. When aides ask her if she’s ready to lay down, she says, “No, I want to lie down.”
When I was my late husband’s caregiver after he suffered two strokes, we would often have a similar conversation. He would say, “Can I lay down?”
I’d say, “No, I will lay you down. You can lie down, but you cannot lay down.” He’d only laugh, and the next time he was ready for a nap, the conversation would be repeated. He wasn’t losing his memory. He just loved getting my goat by using incorrect grammar. You can read more of our story in My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds.
The use of “lay” and “Lie” can be confusing. So, here’s one way to look at it. You can lay down your weapons, but if you want to take a nap, you need to lie on the couch.
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
The poems in this collection touch on faith, life experiences, nature, and holidays and offer some miscellaneous reflections. An entire section of the book is dedicated to poems inspired by the author’s memories of visiting friends in Huntsville, Alabama. Some poems are preceded by notes explaining what inspired them.
I met Carrie Hooper years ago through Newsreel, an audio magazine where blind and visually impaired people can share ideas and music or buy, sell, or give something away. She recently joined Behind Our Eyes, a group of disabled authors. I’ve had the pleasure of reading her work on our email list and in our online publication, Magnets and Ladders. We still correspond by email daily.
Because of the vivid imagery in Carrie’s poems, I was with her on a beach, feeling the sand’s softness under my feet. I tasted the sweetness of pancakes, waffles and pies and listened to joyous vocal and instrumental music praising God. Her poems about holiday recollections brought back my own such memories. Her work tells stories that are easy to understand. You don’t have to like poetry in order to enjoy this collection.
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
My late husband Bill once told me he fell in love with my voice. So, the song I’m featuring today expresses what he must have been feeling. I don’t think he’d heard it, or he would have included it in one of several cassette tapes he sent me containing music he’d downloaded from the Internet before we were married. I hadn’t heard it until recently while streaming an 80’s station from Amazon Music, but when I did, I immediately thought of Bill. The song must have come out after I lost interest in popular music in 1985.
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
Several years after her husband was killed in a car accident, Lillian is still devastated. She works as an illustrator for a publishing firm. One of her assignments is to provide pictures for a book on vegetables. For research, she and her little girls, along with her sister, take a gardening class where they meet some interesting characters. Together, they create a community garden, but vegetables, fruits, and flowers aren’t the only things that grow there.
Each chapter is preceded by a section that explains how to grow a particular plant. Those aren’t as interesting as the story. I love the humorous way the author portrays grief, gardening, romance, and healing. Her telling of the story from Lillian’s first-person point of view, as if she were talking to you face to face, gives it a more casual touch. The ending ties everything up but leaves the reader wondering.
One thing I don’t like about this book is the idea that a woman needs to have a man in order to be happy. I’ve been content to live most of my life without a man. That said, even if you’re not into gardening, which I’m not, and even if you’re not into romance, which I’m not, you’ll get a good laugh and a good feeling from this book.
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
Today, I’m pleased to share with you a post by fellow blogger Lynda McKinney Lambert in which she reviews Magnets and Ladders, an online magazine featuring work by authors with disabilities. This magazine is produced by Behind Our Eyes, an organization of which I’m proud to be president. Please read Lynda’s article and take a look at Magnets and Ladders. Even if you don’t have a disability, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the magazine as much as Lynda and I do.
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
According to Your Daily Poem, this past Sunday was World Letter Writing Day. These days, who writes a letter with pen and paper, puts it in an envelope with a stamp, and deposits it in a mailbox? Well, in 2005 before we were married, my late husband Bill did just that. At the time, he was living in Fowler, Colorado, and I was living here in Sheridan, Wyoming. The letter he sent me was quite a shock, as you’ll see in the excerpt from My Ideal Partner below.
***
“Dear Abbie, I’m writing to ask for your hand in marriage,” the letter stated.
“Oh, no,” I said, as the index finger of my right hand scanned the Braille words on the page.
It was a Saturday evening in January 2005. This was all a bad dream, I thought, as I sat in the living room of my apartment. Any minute, my alarm clock would ring. I would wake up, and everything would be as it was before. Instead, the talking clock in the bedroom announced that it was 8:30.
***
How about you? Do you still write letters the old-fashioned way?
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
In celebration of Labor Day, I’ll sing you a song about a job that takes men away from their families for several nights at a time. It’s sung from the viewpoint of the women, who wait on shore and sing for joy when they see the boats approach from a distance.
How about you? Did your job ever take you away from your family for more than one night? Did your spouse or any other family members have to travel for work? What was it like when they were gone? Are any of you in the military or with family members in the military dealing with long absences?
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
