“Back in the day, my parents were always warning about calamities and tragedies waiting to happen if I didn’t look both ways when I crossed the street; if they weren’t vigilant and we…

“Some folks grow up around ponies, beaches, sailboats, rosary beads, or with an effusive auntie. I, on the other hand, grew up with and have always lived with pianos. I don’t know why,…

“Without spilling the personal details of a dear friend’s recent health crisis, I’ll just say that serving as health care proxy is not a walk in the park. For several months, my mind…

“The memories—because I was a privileged child in many ways—were not unpleasant. I never heard my parents fight, for instance. They didn’t raise their voices toward one another (and rarely toward anyone else).…

“New York is teeming with lakes, but I don’t want to know them all. A lake is more like a marriage or long-term lover; one wants to revisit a lake over many years,…

“What did I do with that time and space? I spent an inordinate amount of time gazing up. One of my favorite pastimes was pretending that the ceiling was the floor; the living…

“I guess it’s no surprise that I grew up to be a book reviewer for several national magazines (for two decades, I mostly reviewed parenting and self-help books). But the best books for…

“When my mother passed 22 years ago, my siblings weren’t interested in most of her possessions (just as today, I’m told, many children don’t really want their parents’ old photos and dishes). But…

“As children grew, what did I need? I needed a man who rushed home from a rehearsal with not just a clarinet in his musician’s backpack, but buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken (no,…

“Now in my ‘golden years,’ with three grown sons, I’ve been wondering what to do with my old diaries. I began keeping a diary (in writer-speak ‘journaling’), when I received my very first…