Happy 25th, dear daughter

My smart and beautiful daughter Elisabeth looked comfortable turning 25. I asked her if this was the birthday that made her feel older, and she just shrugged her shoulders. Good for her. On the 20-mile drive from the Little Bitty to the beautiful Brae Loch Inn in scenic Cazenovia to meet Elisabeth and her terrific…

First full day of spring meant it was Mom’s birthday

In our house when I was a kid, March 21 was the first day of spring. None of this starting the season to savor the coming of the great warm to come around dinner time on the 20th like people talk about now. Nope. March 21st meant it was spring. And Dolores’ birthday. My mother…

Dinner with Daryl and Tony Graziano, too

With my dear wife Karen’s son Daryl quite content working the overnight-and-weekend shift at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y., our dinner get-togethers come on Wednesday or Thursday nights. His late-winter move some 25 miles from Syracuse and closer to the job has further complicated schedules. Last night we celebrated his birthday…

A throwback to what made my father happy

One look at this photo, and memories of what brought my father Frank joy smack me in the back of the head. Yeah, sometimes he’d do that, too, figuratively, with just one of his parental death stares. But not when we were tooling around the village of Stony Brook. Our father was proud of this…

Remembering a daughter and a husband on a grief day

There’s no shortage of joy in our home here in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood for my dear wife Karen and I, and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle, too. We hope that the happiness with life radiates out to adult children Daryl and Elisabeth as well. Of course we have our share of pain…

And it was you

Once upon a time, a dad-to-be climbed into bed after another night of work and fell asleep to the world. After five or so hours, the mom-to-be shook her husband’s shoulder. Not used to opening his eyes this early in the day, the man may have grunted. The woman said it was time. The man…

A family resemblance can sneak up and floor you

Sometimes the pieces to complete a startling vision sit pages apart in the scrapbook of your mind. For all my life, I’ve been comfortable with the premise that out of us three kids, my youngest sister, Dory, had the most family resemblance to either of our parents. My sister Fran, the middle one, kind of…