Life in the Sandwich

I want to know where my mother went, the tough little woman who could do anything. She trained to be an EMT when she was sixty years old. She leaped…

“We’re all balanced out here, the five of us, and she and my mother are an inseparable twosome … When my daughter leaves, I fear the house might tip over.”

“Where do five radically different people go for vacation? …If on my own, I’d hightail it to a writing cabin. If with my husband solo, we’d pick some romantic spot…

I was drowning in the role of being my mother’s only friend, and I use the term “friend” in the loosest possible interpretation. We were slowly driving each other nuts…”I’m…

It’s May. April showers bring May flowers. Time to send a check to my best high-school friend, across the country, to ask for her annual favor: to purchase a nice…

It’s Friday night, and my mother is peering at the calendar. “Is tonight basketball night?” When I confirm that yes, tonight she and my husband are going to the Oakland…

Nothing strikes terror into a woman’s heart more than the sight of a small curtained room filled with bits of spandex dripping from plastic hangers. Multiply that by four females…

My mother stopped driving two years ago, the day she drove nonstop for over twelve hours, searching for the veterinary hospital that was ten miles away. She didn’t stop, or…

My husband and I grimaced when his brother and wife pulled into McDonald’s. Their kids tumbled out and ran to the play structure. What a chaos of noise, bad food…

Am I salami, turkey or cucumbers with goat cheese? All I know is that I am in the company of 44% of American women who care for both aging parents…