My son sent us a message at 6:37 a.m. MST on Messenger. They’re two hours behind us, so it was 8:37 a.m. for us. The message? “It’s go time!” Keaton and Kate’s due date was December 13, but their baby decided December 3 was the day. Three hours later, at 9:29 a.m. MST, Atlas Cameron…
I’ve been in plays where I’ve had to kiss someone. It’s part of the play. And it’s not as interesting as one would think. You’re performing a role. There’s no emotional involvement and it’s mechanical. It’s nothing like when you kiss someone you have feelings for. But in the olden days, when a play called…
The mother of a friend of mine passed away recently. This was the first significant death that my friend had experienced. They knew people that had died. But this was the first death of someone they loved. Someone they cared deeply for. And it shook them. They are in their late sixties and had never…
Happy News! We just found out that our son Keaton and his girlfriend Kate got married. Yesterday! Which is their eighth anniversary of being together. They had planned to get married during their recent trip to Japan. They had all the paperwork they needed. But bureaucracy and scheduling got the better of them. In the…
We took down the Christmas tree last week. The ornaments came off. The lights were untangled. Everything went back into their boxes. The boxes went back on the shelves in the basement. The tree was bare. And then it went outside for pickup. It is just Deb and me, again. There are still some remnants…
Today is our 36th Wedding Anniversary. It’s a lifetime. A lifetime of memories. Kids. Laughs. Trips. Expenses. Families. Friends. Pets. Losses. It’s more time than many people get. And I’m grateful. We’re grateful. We constantly tell each other how lucky we are. It’s not all rainbows and sunny days. I drive Deb crazy sometimes. She drives…
It was 38 years ago that I kissed Deb for the first time. On her birthday. I kiss her every day, usually. But the birthday kiss is always special. It’s the anniversary of the spark. The spark that grew into a steady flame of love. Most years I get to celebrate her birthday…
A friend at work became a parent this week. Or rather, the baby was born this week. I guess they became a parent as soon as the baby was conceived. I was thinking about the advice I would give to new parents… Pay attention! Your little person is only a little person for a short…
On Mother’s Day, I usually write about my wife. The mother of my children. I don’t often write about my mother. Bernadette Kelly was a great mom. I called her Mommy. It felt weird to call her “mom”, though. Too short. She was always “mommy”. My earliest memory of her is when I’m about four…
One of the things I love the most about my wife, Deb, is her maternal instincts. She has always had them. It was the epiphany that she would be a great mother some day, that made me see her in a new light almost forty years ago. One of her qualities that made me love…
peter gruner 