On Monday August 28, 2023 just after 1 pm, my husband got a notice on his phone from Alert Carolina: armed and dangerous person on campus. Shelter in place. We are a few miles from the University of North Carolina campus, but there was no information about where the armed and dangerous person would be…

Walking our dog in the evening some time ago, we passed our neighbor’s mailbox with balloons flying above that read “Congratulations on your retirement!” He came by just then, and we asked “Who retired?” “Me!” he said in triumph. “Have any advice for me?” As we’re a bit older and have been retired several years…

Last weekend, after a few years absent, I attended the Carlton Family Reunion in Georgia, otherwise known as the annual meeting of the Carlton Memorial Cemetery Association. My great-great-grandmother, Nancy Barrett Carlton, deeded an acre of land to her son, John Bolling Carlton, for a cemetery in 1847. The Association was formed later as an…

It started with a printer problem. For mysterious reasons, my printer refused to print. My tech wizard husband, Dave, did his best with little success. Occasionally it would print something hours later. My computer would declare the printer was offline when it wasn’t. Turning the printer off and on didn’t work. Although the printer was…

Now that I’m 75, the reality of my mortality looms larger than ever before. Every day people my age and younger are dying. I will someday join them. Plans must be made. On an unseasonably warm January day, we drove out to the Bluestem Conservation Cemetery to pick out my plot for a future green…

When my father died in 1996, I acquired all sorts of his belongings. Many I didn’t know what to do with and tucked away in closets and on shelves. At that time I was newly separated and headed for divorce. My main concern was reorganizing my life to take care of my eight year old…

It starts with the search for an idea. Perhaps a question: What if…? I walk around for days or weeks, staring off into space, plucking and discarding topics and thoughts and ideas. Something appeals to me. No, it will never work. Maybe I find a general area of interest and a subset that I let…

I was attending the North Carolina Writers’ Network spring conference, held virtually, and this question came to me during the “picnic lunch” where we were divided into break out rooms. I had just met the woman who asked this question. I was not prepared for this question and felt at a loss. It has stuck…