Spring arrived; it's about time! The snow is gone and it's time for sunny days and warm nights. Sadly, on this day, April 1, 2013 the weather was not...

Seldom will anything break your heart as easily as the sight of your child in unbelievable emotional pain... and what greater pain is there to a child than the tragic loss of a parent. Though it has been many years since his death, my daughter still experiences bouts of sadness because Daddy is not here anymore.

Years ago, I escaped from 18 years of an abusive situation -- and I know that it isn't chains that hold you. I was not tied in a basement. I could have found a way to escape. But my chains were mental and proved to be a much stronger binding than any physical restraint could have been.

'How is Sophie?' a neighbor asked the other day, inquiring about our endearing Yellow Lab. Sophie, with her lively personality and satanic eyes (she had Horner's syndrome), was an important member of our family for a long time. We loved her. We lost her. And now life is pretty awesome.

Moving into assisted living or a memory care community can be hard on both the person and their family. The good news is there is much family members can do to ease the transition. Here are eight tips that will bring more ease into the initial assisted living experience.

As it turned out, the baby created itself without permission from either of them, announcing its existence in subtle ways after they returned from the...

Just because you've been getting away with a social gaffe for decades doesn't mean you shouldn't stop making it. By the time you're 50, you should know a thing or two -- or 25 -- about etiquette.

Moyra Kincaid's bantam cock, Apollo, greets the dawn every morning with a cry far bigger than one would expect from such a little bird. On her eighth...

The prospect of the empty nest, while raising children, was for me as foreign and distant as the Siberian tundra. Imagining myself without children to care for as my primary occupation seemed at once impossible and slightly seductive -- the idea of my kids off and on their own, while I had hours to pursue my dreams was something I thought about only in the abstract.

Marquessa was a woman so unique that as she walked down Via Regina Margherita to the subway station, each man's head rotated in her direction; eyes fo...

Darkness surrounded the ranch buildings. From within the house a lantern's feeble light shone through an open door and window. In this late hour the l...

From "Young at Heart" to "The Way You Look Tonight," "Love and Marriage" to "My Funny Valentine," there was a song for every mood, every time of day, every event. I, like a million girls before me and a million since, fell in love with Sinatra through his voice, and what a voice it is.

When I was a young girl growing up on suburban Long Island, in the 1950s, like all typical dreamers of that era, I used to fantasize about being a model.

The news that the legendary journalist Barbara Walters plans to retire in the summer of 2014 should come as no surprise to anyone: She is 83 and has a...

It was the tingly glow of that December morning that awoke him from his daydream in his seat on a bus going to work. Oblivious to the others who were ...

Emily Post’s great-great-granddaughter, Lizzie Post, has inherited her great-great grandmother's flair for guiding us through life's ticklish situat...

Last month, collapsed across my therapist's couch, I whined about the many ways getting older sucks, and how it seems that almost overnight I have become, well, old, at least compared to everyone else I work with, walk by, eat across from or downward-dog next to.

"Well, of course, you can read," my father said. It was two days after my tonsillectomy and the boredom of my sickroom led to this discovery. He barel...

In 2012, everyone seemed to have 'a bucket list' or issue 'a spoiler alert' or argue that something or other 'isn't rocket science.' Unfortunately there are more overused terms to replace them in 2013. And, as always, they tend to drive me up the wall.

Am I upset that my dad died? Not anywhere near as upset as I am that he chose to never live.

Clamped on the steering wheel, one hand is at noon, the other at six, and with a flick of the wrists you veer left off Old Grove onto Georgia Hill Road.

He touched me. Not in any way lascivious or anything. Just a simple soft brush across and down my shoulder in acknowledgement that he had seen me. No words were spoken. Just the touch. I loved him for that. I always had...

I used to be 'mommy.' Now I'm not. While my adult children love me dearly, I am clearly something other than the identity that defined me over much of the past six decades. But that's not all. I also used to be 'Carol Orsborn.' Now I'm not that either.

With today's economic uncertainties, many of us have one or more family members who are struggling financially. A brother who lost his job and is at risk of losing his house. An adult daughter who recently divorced and may need to move back in with you, at least temporarily -- with her two small children.