My family

Family Stories Vlog

11 Dec 2016

What is some of your favorite music?

I don't listen to music much any more.  I don't have a real genre.  I don't really like rock.  I enjoy old folk music like John Denver or the Kingston trio.  I like show tunes a lot (since I'm a critic, I see a lot of musicals).  I enjoy classical music, but not as much as I used to.

List your three favorite scents.

Sigh.  This question again.  The smell of the sea, puppy breath, and fresh ground coffee.  I also like the smell of acetone, rubbing alcohol, Vicks and gasoline.

How do you ground yourself or recharge?

I'm almost 74.  I take lots of naps.

Any ways you treat or spoil yourself?

Chocolate or a good pastry.

Besides your blog, do you have a creative past-time?

I'm not really particularly creative but I do enjoy making pocket letters.

Share something difficult you've been through.

How much time do you have? The death of my two sons (1996 and 1999), the grieving periods following the death of my best friend and my cousin, who was more like my sister. And right now, watching my mother's dementia eat away her brain.

What helps you fall asleep?

Usually exhaustion, but if I still can't sleep, I find that Morning Joe is a great soporific, if I'm still awake at 3 a.m...unless the day's news from Trumpland is terrifying and then I won't be able to sleep at all.

What is one strength and one weakness of yours?

I am generally good in a crisis (I've had lots of experience) but I have lots of personal failings, like procrastination, inability to keep the house clean, lack of self-discipline.

Have you ever received a letter or written one to someone else?

Oh my yes!  I write lots of letters (mostly to the 29 kids I sponsor around the world) and my granddaughters, and receive letters from all of them.  Even with her dementia, my mother is proud of the fact that she never writes letters.

What makes you feel powerful, what breathes life into you?

I don't know that I ever feel powerful any more.

What's your favorite thing to do at night?

Watch TV

If you could go back to any era, what would they be?

I'd like to revisit the 1950s and find out why I thought it was such a good time when it was not good at all for an awful lot of people (I suspect I thought they were good because I was a young white girl living in a white neighborhood.,  We weren't wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but if my family had money worries, I didn't know about them. Politics was not discussed in our house, so I never knew what was going on in the world.  I lived in blissful ignorance.

Your favorite things to wear at home?

pajama bottoms, t-shirt, and fuzzy socks

If you could be immortal or have an extremely long life span which would you pick and why?

Neither.  Immortality would be terrible.  You'd spend your entire life saying goodbye to loved ones.  And, watching my mother deteriorate at age 97, that doesn't hold any appeal for me either.  Just let me go to sleep some night and not wake up.  Maybe I'll find old friends on the other side.

Tell us about something positive you have done for yourself or someone recently.

Today is my day to write to all 29 kids I sponsor.  Three are in Haiti and one is in Indonesia and I worry about how they are doing after the natural disasters to hit their countries.

One thing you like about your appearance?

My hair isn't too bad.  It needs cutting right now, but it's my best feature.

Something that makes you feel better after a hard day?

Sinking into my recliner, turning on the television, and NOT seeing anything about Donald Trump.

If you have one, name a favorite book & movie.

Favorite book, "Prince of Tides."  Favorite movie, "A Star Is Born" (1954, with Judy Garland)

Since almost all of you are women, add this question: How do you feel about beards? No bonus points. I'm curious

Walt has had a beard for at least 40 years or more.  I won't let him shave it.  We have compromised on a goatee.  Does that answer your question?