Stories of a single mother raising four kids after her divorce while trying to reinvent herself, including dating again
GalleryA New Sense of Balance
Picking up my commission check at the office, I looked at the amount in the upper righthand corner, and thought, Oh, the things I can now buy. Where else can you get paid so much for one transaction? Placing it in my wallet, I headed for the bank to deposit it. But along the way, I had a second thought. Perhaps it’s time I made peace with my job.
In 2001, I found myself forty-nine and single. When I was a young woman, I knew […]
GalleryA Moment to Give Thanks
“Hi, Jackie, this is Bruce Barton of the Los Altos Town Crier. I want to talk to you about this piece you just wrote.”
The year was 2010. My first book, My Life in a Tutu, had recently been published and for some strange reason, the powers that be at the Relay for Life cancer event thought I could do the marketing for the cause. I’d never done something like this before and I wasn’t sure I was up to the task. Hearing his voice, […]
GalleryA Mother’s Birthright
Tiptoeing into our hotel room just past 1:00 am, with her Betty Davis hazel eyes sparkling brightly, my daughter Jenni instantly became confused when I had an explosive “Mommy moment.”
“Where in the hell have you been!” I yelled. Just like back in high school when she’d missed her curfew, I was furious. “This is Mexico, for God’s sake. Something bad could have happened to you and I wouldn’t know it.”
Lifting up my cell phone and waving it wildly in her face, I continued, […]
GalleryI’ll Have What She’s Having
Slipping into my newest outfit from Lululemon and my matching neon green hiking shoes, hair and makeup ready to go, I prepared for my six-mile walk from my daughter’s apartment to the Golden Gate Bridge and back again. As I made my way through Fort Mason, then onto Chrissy Field, I soaked in the beauty of the San Francisco Bay and the magnificent orange bridge ahead. Feeling energetic and alive, I was clipping along at a quick pace, happy with my progress, when all […]
GalleryMy Year of Asking for Help
Standing in my bedroom in 1974, my mother schooled me once again with her steps for finding the perfect job. Having heard it all before, I wanted to scream. At twenty-two years old, I was now a college graduate and, in my snarky opinion, no longer needed her advice.
But, as I pounded the streets of San Francisco’s financial district in my long, homemade jean skirt covered in embroidered flowers and a peasant blouse that slid down my right shoulder, I began to wonder if […]
GalleryA Piece of Me
“Are you crazy?” a woman I’d just met began, perplexed. “Why bother writing if you can’t make a living at it?”
Back in 2001, when stories I had locked away in my brain found their way to paper, I felt God was giving me another talent to play with. From the time I was young, I was pulled to the arts: drawing, painting, sculpting, even sewing. Later, music entered with my first guitar, and off I was in folk-, singing the songs of Peter, Paul […]