Facing the yawning abyss of solitude in the fall of my life It was a beautiful fall day in early October, 2023, when Anne and I were still living in Dijon, France. We were heading for Mâcon for a day trip, on a local train destined for Lyon. The train was an old..
Unsafe at any speed revisited I’m a horrible driver; I’ve always been a horrible driver. This deficiency is in my DNA: behind the proverbial wheel, my father was unsafe at any speed and my mother was beyond a shadow of a doubt the worst driver in history. (Various friends and relatives wanted to sue the..
Escaping the rough by choosing the right club In 1964, when I was 12 years old, our family moved from Georgetown to London Ontario. This permanent change of scene came as a devastating blow, complete with the typical leaving behind of school and friends, entailing the requisite adjustment to a new, bigger city culture. In..
Fête nationale française le 14 juillet 2026 : Vive la Révolution ! Retour sur la prise de notre Bastille en 2023… et aujourd’hui Bastille Day, July 14, 2026: Vive la Révolution! Looking back on the storming of our Bastille in 2023…and today The English version of this very short sketch immediately follows the French. ..
Mourn on the 4th of July: An elegy for my American cousins and friends For my dear, recently departed wife, Anne, travelling to Vermont, which we did quite frequently whilst in Canada, was like returning to her native region in the Carpathian foothills of Slovakia: the same green uplands folding one behind another, the..
The Ottawa Hospital has permanently closed the temporary emergency overflow area at its General Campus, unofficially known as “the garage.” But not before this holding pen became an indelible part of our nightmarish cancer story. On April 30 of last year, when Anne and I celebrated our 46th anniversary of conjugal life by..
New Canadian class: Canada Day 2026 On August 21,1968, my late wife Anne’s country was invaded by the Soviet Union. The invasion of Czechoslovakia took place the day before Anne’s 10th birthday. The Soviet Union was intent on putting an end to what is known as the Prague Spring, a period of reform in Czechoslovakia..
Losing My Marbles 1957, Chapel Street Public School, Georgetown, Ontario, kindergarten with Mrs. Smith. If you misbehaved, “behind the piano” was your place of penance. We kids lived for recess, when we could “play marbles,” or allies, as we also called them. (Mrs., Smith was neither a big fan of marbles nor of the word..
Take this waltz: It’s yours now. It’s all that there is. The vast majority of survivors of a dearly departed spouse are afflicted by certain regrets. One regret that gnaws at my soul as I lie sleepless at night is that I never took Anne dancing. Why? I was the world’s worst, most embarrassing..
Losing my Kitten A free verse poem on loss and memory The imminent loss of my beloved Anne evokes childhood loss. Anne, my Kitten, a mortally wounded creature, quivers in my arms, her body folded into the shape of soon-to-be eternal surrender. I whisper her pet name, “Kit, Kitty,” my lips brushing the soft..