The Resolute Woman

Category: families

  • I danced an Irish jig

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in , ,

    What do you say when the nurse calls and tells your daughter that she is cancer-free? Words, of course, can never express the relief and happiness I felt. I didn’t say anything. After 15 months of watching Ranna battle cancer and trying my best to help her and sometimes fearing the worst, how could I…

  • The awful grandmother

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    resolutewoman
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    In her semi-autobiographical novel Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros tells the multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family. Cisneros once explained that she originally just wanted to explain the life of her father. However, to explain her father’s life, she also had to explain the life of her “awful grandmother,” who was her father’s bossy mother. And, she…

  • The death of Anthony Shadid

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    resolutewoman
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    When I turned on my computer to my Yahoo news page and saw the picture of Anthony Shadid and read that he had died at 43, I was at first shocked and then deeply saddened. Anthony, of course, was The New York Times foreign correspondent who died of a fatal asthma attack in Syria. He…

  • Jeannette Walls shares her secrets

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    resolutewoman
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    I recently heard Jeannette Walls tell the riveting story she uses in the opening of her best-selling book The Glass Castle. Walls spoke at a benefit luncheon for The Stewpot, which helps feed the homeless in Dallas. If you’ve read the book, you’ll remember that Walls, a New York reporter who was writing about the…

  • Take care of yourself, too

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    by

    resolutewoman
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    When I first learned that my daughter Ranna would have to go back to the hospital, I thought first about myself. “Oh, no,” I said to myself. “You can’t go back to the hospital. I can’t handle any more doctors or hospitals.” Then, of course, I felt guilty. I was thinking about myself, and I…

  • Is it still a happy new year?

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    resolutewoman
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    I had been telling myself that my daughter Ranna’s medical problems were ending and that this year would be the start of her healing. I still am convinced that this year will be a new beginning for Ranna. But the new beginning is not going to happen immediately. Ranna already has spent six days in…

  • A holiday reminder from Garrison Keillor

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    resolutewoman
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    While browsing in the bookstore, I found Garrison Keillor’s comments about Christmas newsletters. Written in 2006, he quotes one newsletter in which “the writer bursts the bounds on modesty.” This immodest writer reports: “Tara was top scorer on the Lady Cougers soccer team and won the lead role in the college production of Antigone, which…

  • Sometimes people don’t change

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    resolutewoman
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    My mother was deeply affected by the death of her own mother when she was four years old. Because she never received the love she needed, she was a non-toucher. She never showed her love for me by hugging or kissing me. Finally, when I was in counseling after my divorce, I realized how much…

  • We’re thankful for family and friends

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    resolutewoman
    in ,

    This Thanksgiving, Fayteen and I are thankful for many blessings. Most of all, we are thankful for our families and for friends who have become like family. Joy is especially thankful to have both of her college-student children home for the holiday. She’s thankful even though her son, Jay, a senior at the University of…

  • Count your blessings

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    Fayteen has spent many days recently worrying about her daughter, Ranna, who has been battling breast cancer, and Joy is feeling sad about the death of a very good friend. Many of you have had difficult days during this past year. However, during this Thanksgiving week, we are inspired by the story of Abraham Lincoln,…