How often do you use the words “I am”? It is a way to identify yourself. I often begin a talk with those words to identify what my credentials are. I think of myself as a child of God, a widow, a mother, a grandmother, a retired educator, and a columnist. All of those roles I have ...

When I first read that sign, I laughed. Dear Richard, my spousal roommate, refers to the spilling of distilled beverages as alcohol abuse. I did not grow up knowing about alcohol abuse because we had no liquor in the house. My mother was not anti-alcohol, she just had never lived where it ...

By ROBERT STANGER Social Security, which dates back to the Great Depression year of 1935 and the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has certainly been a boon to our family. Basically, as is the case with millions of other recipients, it has allowed my wife and me to ...

I have now lived in this area for more than 50 years. My husband, a dairy farmer, brought me to this area. When we first moved here, we lived in a trailer. We had to be near his work. His parents allowed us to move the trailer into their yard. It was small, but it was ours. We had two ...

Ten years ago in this space, I mourned the loss of Dear Abby. Abigail Van Buren had died at age 94. I felt like a wise old member of the family had passed on – similar to the way I felt the day Erma Bombeck passed … the day the laughter died. Like everyone else, I met both those ladies in ...

Here are some made up words, terms and truths: ¯ R. I. N. O: Republican in name only – term applied when supposedly a GOP member was not aligned with party ideology. Under Trump and since, there is no official Republican Party platform; policy was what Donald Trump said it was. Platform ...