Spanish moss whispered in the breeze as I sat cross-legged on our dock in Sarasota, Florida. I was in the middle of an acrimonious divorce and had come outside to the bayou to find some peace of mind. I didn’t know what would come next for me. The on

My wife and I walked through the entrance of the Cowboy Poetry Festival. All around us were stalls offering Western food, paintings and leatherwork. As we decided what to check out first, my wife gave my hand a squeeze. She knew today was hard for me

Everything seemed to change for me when I entered high school. There were 790 people in my freshman class alone, and I never saw a single person I knew from middle school. At home I was just as lonely. My older brother was a senior, consumed with fut

Only a couple more hours to go, I told myself. At last, we’d made it to northern Indiana after driving all afternoon and evening, heading home from a family vacation in Wisconsin. We’d gotten a late start packing up, none of us wanting to leave our l

Bill just wasn’t a cat person. Yet there he was on the porch, my husband with a yellow striped cat in his arms. “Look who found me,” he said with a grin. My eyes widened while I waited for the stray to leap from Bill’s arms and go on her merry way—bu

Automobiles were still a novelty way back in the 1930s, at least in Alfred Gallucci’s neighborhood in Connecticut. When one of the neighbors drove up in a new Ford, everyone on the block came out for a look. One bright Sunday afternoon, the neighbors

Mom’s teacups had been packed into cardboard boxes, carefully wrapped in newspaper, each with its matching saucer. After she passed, I’d spent weeks sorting through her belongings. I donated some of her clothes and furniture to our church center, but

Morning rain tapped at the bedroom window, but it was my husband Noland’s gentle nudging that woke me up. “You were giggling in your sleep,” he said. I blinked. “I was having the most wonderful dream.” Noland must have been relieved to see me in a go

Dad had what you’d call a big personality. Larger than life. He could charm a whole room in minutes. Holding my newborn son in my arms I wished, not for the first time, that the two of them could have met. We’d named the baby Stone, which was my maid

For most of my life, I lived in New York. But six months ago, I moved to New Jersey to be closer to my daughter. She was fighting cancer, and I didn’t regret my decision to give her all the support I could on a moment’s notice. I was right where I wa

My sister loves photography and always has her camera with her. We were in the backyard at my mother’s house one day, standing by the wooden bench our father had given her as an anniversary gift before he passed away. We missed him and the love he sh

As a preacher’s kid, I grew up singing hymns not only in church, but also at home, gathered with my family around our upright piano. Hymns taught me how to harmonize while teaching me timeless biblical truths. For the past 20 years, I’ve been rescuin

Irelaxed in our backyard under the shade of a big tree, while my five-year-old daughter, Paula, splashed and laughed in the pool. After a while, she hoisted herself up onto the edge for a quiet break. The sun shone bright overhead, our dog asleep in

On an October day in 2020, I was walking the Hidden Lake Trail in Montana’s Glacier National Park, where I work as a park ranger. I spotted a stuffed teddy bear on the ground, wet from the melting snow. He looked well-worn, like he’d been there a lon

I was already on my way to be with Dad when I realized I hadn’t even bothered to change out of my work clothes. It was a four-hour drive from my home outside of Atlanta to Asheville, North Carolina, where Dad was in the hospital having surgery to rep

JEAN HIEKEN MERRIMACK, NEW HAMPSHIRE Iglanced out the window and saw that the oilman had arrived to fill my tank. After he had done the job, I went outside to retrieve my bill. He handed me my mail as well. “I didn’t want you to have to walk all the

Hiking and camping weren’t new to me that summer of 2010. I’d been enjoying the great outdoors since my teen years. But now I was leading eight junior high kids through the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia. That was a lot of responsibility. When I w

Here De Morgan expresses her desire for an end to World War I, as Jesus ascends above the graves of fallen soldiers. De Morgan wrapped her angels in rainbows, a biblical symbol for hope. De Morgan’s title references the popular Christian hymn and the

Yet another door slammed in my face. My shoulders slumped in defeat. I hadn’t expected door-to-door sales to be easy, but I certainly hadn’t expected it to be this hard. Monday, my first day on the job, was a bust, and if my luck didn’t improve befor

Ipulled my bathrobe tight around me. It was a cold night, and the thin walls of the house did little to keep out the chill. The floor furnace popped and crackled, but it seemed to be fighting a losing battle. I wandered from room to room, dashing out

PSALM 104:4 In August 2021, someone posted a picture of a giant beach ball on our neighborhood Facebook page. “Does this ball belong to anyone?” the post said. “We found it in our pool this morning.” We’d had storms the night before, so the wind must

Retirement was a little quieter than I’d planned for, since Covid restrictions kept me at home. One afternoon, finishing up the breakfast dishes, I found myself thinking back on my busy working life as a professor. I’d had a long career and was amaze

In the Jan/Feb 2022 issue of Angels on Earth, Lorraine De Los Santos mentioned that she’d been looking for a 7Up cake recipe but could not find one. My wife and I have a family recipe we think Lorraine—and many other readers—would enjoy. Find it at a