When I was growing up, my dad taught pharmacology at the IU Medical School in Indianapolis. He grew up in a small mining town in Pennsylvania, which was filled with Polish and Irish Americans. He fell in love with Indianapolis because it was what he called a “melting pot,” filled with p...
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One of my grandsons started pre-school this fall. The first three afternoons went well. On the fourth day, he came out of his classroom in tears; another student had taken his spot on the area rug during story time. Our spots mean a lot to us, don’t they? It seems to me that in my retirement...
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I moved to southern Indiana when I was in my early 20s, and since I didn’t know anyone here I join a local organization. Soon I was a member of the board, and then I was asked to co-chair a luncheon honoring past presidents. I agreed to help, and another member and I worked very hard on the d...
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I was talking with a dear friend recently, and she told me about the night that she met her husband. It was fun to listen as she talked. She’s quite elderly, but as she was remembering that happy moment she became animated; in fact, she was transformed into a lovely young woman who was right...
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I saw two sentences on the Internet recently that stopped me in my tracks: You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love. Always be kind. Maybe the writer got the idea from Matthew 5. Early in that chapter, Jesus gives His followers the beautiful words of the Beatitudes. He conclud...
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My four-year-old grandson, Isaac, spent a few weeks with me recently. He’s smart and active, so my daughter and I tried to find fun things for him to do. One day he asked to play the piano. I lifted its lid and showed him the inner workings, explaining why he needed to be gentle with the keys...
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Have you ever been afraid? I’ve had a lot of fear during my lifetime. I’ve heard that it’s important to face your fears, but sometimes it’s hard. A few years ago, my husband and I were hiking around the lake at Lincoln State Park. That place has always been one of my favorit...
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When I was midway through my high school years at Our Lady of Grace Academy, the mandate came down: all the boarders must be in the school orchestra. Some of the girls were thrilled. I wasn’t. Perhaps based on their parents’ advice, some of my classmates chose to learn the hardest instr...
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Sometimes when I’m feeling a little melancholy and out of sorts, I head to a site on the Internet and I search for a photo of my grandparents’ home. In their twilight years, they lived in a small bungalow situated right across the street from their parish church. It had a wide front por...
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Years ago, I worked with a wonderful man named Paul Newland. He was the ad salesman for The Message, and he lived in the town of Washington. One day, he suggested that I do a story about an old Catholic cemetery that was located in his neck of the woods. I thought that sounded like a great idea; an...
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