Columns

Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with vaccinations. Not everyone will have the same response. Consult your doctor about whether a particular vaccine is safe or recommended for you. I cut my visit with my dad short on Saturday and went home. As soon as I got there,…

“I’ll only be a minute,” my dad assured us as he stopped off at Parker Hall at Auburn University, where its computer center was located. It was 1965 or so, and we were on our way home from after-school activities. Dad wanted to pick up the punch cards that held…

Whoosh! The heat and humidity hit me in the face every time I go outside. It’s July, and the weather conditions here in Auburn, Alabama, are more dynamic than in my other home in Papua, Indonesia — although the latter is 2.5 degrees below the equator. The combination of heat…

I am feeling better by the week. I can’t always tell from one day to the next, but there seems to be a steady improvement in my energy. For the first time in about 14 months, I hosted a party at my house. I’ve also been weed-eating the Queen Anne’s…

“Schools out, schools out! Teacher let the fools out. No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks!” I remember running home, singing that old rhyme, having finally escaped the drudgery of the elementary classroom. Three whole months stretched before me. Grabbing a book from my shelf, I…

“Kudzu!” A long time ago, my daughter and her friend, both GRITS — that is, girls raised in the South — giggled together in a classroom when they first heard about the invasive vine with the funny name. But I’m pretty sure everyone in the southern U.S. has dealt with…

It was the worst thing I have ever done to my skin. There was no way I could get over to my dad’s that evening with this stuff on my face. The lower third of my face was blue! I was trying out a new product for removing some excess…

Da-dahda-da! Off goes the blasted alarm on my husband’s phone at 7:45 a.m. How I hate it. I didn’t get more than a wink of sleep. I tossed and turned, first under the covers because I was too cold, then with one leg and then the other poking out because…

I looked around the yard in dismay after walking through the rotting wooden door of our screened-in back porch to assess the challenges before me. The backyard of our Alabama home didn’t look like this when my husband, Mike, and I left it last summer for our work in Indonesia.

I made a decision on June 5, 1972, that has affected the rest of my life. Actually, that one decision rippled outward and affected many people worldwide, including my children, extended family, and students from six continents. On that day, my husband, Mike, and I stood before our families and…