The Voice (aka ‘Da Voice’)

Source of photo: Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Research and Institute Centre

My father was diagnosed with throat cancer when he was in his mid-fifties – younger than I am now. While he was very proud that he had managed – two years before he got the cancer – to beat a life-long smoking habit, he had unfortunately not stopped soon enough. I had been on his back to stop smoking for many years. When I was around 12 years old, I rushed home from school one day to tell him that ‘all the kids at school’ swore by a stop-smoking trick called ‘eating’ cold turkey. It seemed so easy to me; we ate a lot of turkey so he had effortless access to an easy cure (Dad was kind enough not to laugh but I do recall that he was biting down – hard – on the insides of his cheeks in his effort to remain serious).

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Saying Goodbye to Uncle C_

When my Uncle C_ was born seventy-six years ago, my mother was five years old and comfortably ensconced in her role as the spoiled baby of the family. Petulant and jealous, she wanted nothing to do with this terrible little usurper of her valued status in the family hierarchy.

The Day the Cousins Came – Finding the Common Thread

I have a great many family photos in my home. Because my husband’s family took very few photos; because my husband tends to think I go ridiculously overboard with the number of photos adorning our walls, not to mention the number of albums taking up space on our bookshelves, I have tried to limit as many of the framed photos as possible to the tiny walls of my little office.

A Lesson on Symbolism and Love

I vividly recall my first encounter with symbolism. I was in grade one, and my teacher read the class a poem about trees, ‘wearing dresses of white and dancing gracefully in the wind”. It had just snowed that day, and as I walked home after school,

Circle of Friends

I always wanted a brother: an older brother, to be exact. I pictured him as big and strong and kind and protective. He would affectionately

Little Sister

Sometimes you only know how much you love someone after you have left them behind.