The Ordinance They Forgot
The first time I understood they meant to take it, I was standing in my own kitchen with a coffee cup going cold in my… Read more
She Kept Her Father’s Shop and Won
The morning we buried my father, Dale Whitmer, the men who had worked for him for twenty years stood at the back of the funeral… Read more
The Hardware Store He Forged
For forty-one years my father stood behind the long oak counter at the front of Aldous Hardware, and in all that time I never once… Read more
The Waitress Who Bought The Diner
The first thing the new owner said to me, after he had owned the place for exactly four days, was that I should smile more…. Read more
The Seat at the Head Table
For forty-one years I cut hair in the front room of my house on Sorrel Street, in a town in central Nebraska so small the… Read more
The Hope Chest She Left Only To Me
For fifty-one years I believed I was the daughter my mother tolerated and my sister was the daughter she loved. I was so certain of… Read more