Time to Rest

Roses refresh us when they're in full bloom, Stop just to smell them; there's plenty of room. Take time for laughter, and get lots of rest, Then you'll give others the best of your best! Gathering sunshine along with the rain, Sweetens the soul and diminishes pain. Moment by moment your...
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Baby Madness

Being the fifth of ten children could be considered the worst scenario for a child seven years old.  Oh sure, it had its moments, but for the most part I was a happy little girl.  I played with my friends in our "big" back yard and learned to jump rope with my sister, Joan.  Of...
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The Baby I Never Held

Drugs . . . The beginning of the end of who I was.  Getting involved in drugs was the worst mistake of my life or so I thought.  Actually, it was what happened as a result of taking drugs that changed me forever.  I can say it wasn't my fault, that I was...
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Sisterly Fun

Laughter ranks on top when it comes to my family's emotions.  Mom and Dad made sure there was a lot of it, and we have all been blessed with a good sense of humor.  Some of us have more of a devious way of delivering humor; however, I tend to stay...
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Beginning piano lessons with a professional

After my 15 year-old daughter Rachelle completed the Rice University Piano Camp in June 2008, we knew we needed to get her to a professional piano teacher.  Rachelle has always been a very talented and dedicated piano student.  She wanted to take piano lessons when she was 8 years old.  We started her...
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My Hospice Experience

Last Friday, I had an experience I won't likely forget.  My friend Melanie & I went to Odyssey Healthcare, a hospice organization, to take a training from our friend Lorrie about how to work with hospice patients as I go volunteer with them, doing StoryKeeper work. We started off with several...
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Carolline (Carol) Chapter Three - PERFUME

It was to be another fun day of shopping for my friend Carol and me. We went to the then famous Filene's Basement in Boston. It was where most entitiled women shopped in those days. We didn't mind pretending, it was a day out for us while the children were in school....
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Bergin Intro

So I thought I'd start by introducing the family I helped to make. I have a husband--Sam. He's just fantastic. He's nearly everything I'm not. Calm, reserved and even keeled. I tend to be the hothead and spontaneous one of the two of us. Sam brought to our family two daughers--Jen...
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Mr. Christmas

Since becoming a StoryKeeper I’ve notice something that keeps coming to my attention. Every one of us has defining moments in our life, an event or experience of such physical or emotional intensity that it has a profound impact on the nature and direction of our life.        Moments...
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Mama almost died!

Hi my name is Christine Brackin, Cormier . I was born in Shirley , MA . January 30 th , 1952. My Father Wallace Randall Brackin and my Mother Helen Martha Andreansky, Brackin lived on Fort Devens Army base with my 3 older sisters, Carole, Patricia and Susan. Dad born January...
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Chapter 1 - A Desire for Climate Change

Surviving The Wrath of a Major Hurricane Chapter 1 - A Desire for Climate Change For us, the winter of 2001 was long, cold and dreary.   We were living in Ashland , Massachusetts , a modest, blue collar town located about 25 miles west of Boston .   Snow had...
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Chapter 2 - Batten Down the Hatches!

Chapter 2 - Batten Down the Hatches! This "extended vacation" would come to a crashing halt for us on August 13th, 2004 .   For days we watched the news, our first experience in following a tropical storm turned hurricane as it turned north towards Florida </st1:state> .   Forecasters said...
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Chapter 3 - Barricaded Inside a 2’x6’ Closet

Chapter 3 - Barricaded Inside a 2’x6’ Closet It was time to plan our escape within the house and the most obvious option for our "hunkering down" was our master bedroom closet.   So I emptied it like a madman, tossing things out and visualizing how we were all going to...
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Chapter 4 - Heeeere's Charley!

Chapter 4 - Heeeere's Charley! I peeked out the sliders for the last time and saw trees being shaken and tossed around like rag dolls.   Even the mightiest of oak trees were being picked out of the ground like tulips.   Across the water I saw the same scene, but...
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Chapter 5 - Onto a New "Safe Room"

Chapter 5 - Onto a New Safe Room I poked my head out the closet door, and to my amazement the drywall was still mostly in place to my right, which was also the only way out.   To the left the tunnel skylight was gone and drywall was soaked, with...
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Chapter 6 - Is It Over?

Chapter 6 - Is It Over? I’m thinking “We made it!”   But did we?   It felt like the dream was continuing on.   “Did this whole thing really happen?   Did we survive or was this our imagination?”   We were so emotionally drained at this point that we...
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Hail Mary, Full of Eric

One night, long after he went to bed, 6 year old Eric got up out of bed and came into the livingroom to say that he just could not go to sleep. I immediately prescribed him the usual cure for his insomnia - go back to bed and count to one...
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That Green House

That Green House   Two years prior to buying our first house in Ashland , Anne and I had to rent.   Our first rental was a wonderful townhouse in a nice development Ashland , walking distance from where we eventually bought our first home 2 years later.   Our plan...
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The Water Bottle

Recently, a 7 year old Florida boy was up way past his bedtime, mulling around, finding ways to avoid that final goodnight hug and kiss from his mom and dad.  Being a 7 year old, he still doesn't realize how much it helps his mom and dad when he does finally...
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Tribute to my brother Jim on his 60th Birthday

James G, yes a capital G in a flash, age 60 is he! A silly poem would be inappropriate to celebrate such an admirable life.  As an infant, Jim was immediately dealt the challenge of losing sight in one eye, something that few people would have the courage and will to...
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