by suelarkinsweems | Dec 19, 2016 | On Family
Losing my grandfather and father-in-law in the same year feels like a kind of carelessness…as if I had any control, as if there would ever be enough time. Grief is always a shock, a denial, an anger that makes way for a softening if I let it. As we remember my...
by suelarkinsweems | Feb 12, 2016 | On Family
This small memory meditation was originally published in Alive Now, March/April 2007. He could use some prayers today, as 98 years press hard on a body. So grateful for him, and for a few words that hope to express what he’s taught me. He shuffles along, the...
by suelarkinsweems | Dec 11, 2015 | On Family
And then we were three. Sweet Ransom burst on the scene in July and we celebrated our first Christmas as sleep-deprived parents. I made a lateral move to the library at Payson Elementary to work fewer hours for a semester, while Matt continued to work and go to...
by suelarkinsweems | Dec 9, 2015 | On Family
I am almost hesitant to even mention this year. It is still tender all these years later. Early in the summer of 1999, we discovered we were pregnant and were over-the-moon excited, along with our families and friends. Then, a few days before school started in August,...
by suelarkinsweems | Dec 5, 2015 | On Family
In 1997, Matt and I both managed to graduate college, and we attempted our first international travel as a couple (which failed, but that’s another story entirely– don’t cry for me Argentina, I was there). That summer though, we moved to Arizona...
by suelarkinsweems | Dec 2, 2015 | On Family, Uncategorized
Our first Christmas married, we lived in a little one-bedroom townhouse. I was finishing my student teaching, and Matt was finishing school and working full-time. It was busy, but we still had time to decorate and get pictures done at the local department store....
