Povey Prattle

Elizabeth Kaeton is a Priest in the Episcopal Church.  She is a friend and colleague.  Here is her blog ( Telling Secrets ) entry from 5th August 2011. It is published here with her  permission . It's my own damn fault. I wish I could say that I hurt my back while lifting a crying child or pulling someone out of a burning building. No. I hurt my back while sitting in a beach chair for three days.   One of our daughters was visiting.   I was reading a book. A good book. A really good book. Does that ascribe at least a modicum of virtue to my pain? Probably not. It is better today. At least I'm not walking like "Pretzel Woman" today, and the pain is lessening - it's more like an persistent strong ache. Patience has never really been my strong suit. I'm seeing a chiropractor regularly. I'm having daily mild adjustments, mild vibration, light and electro-stimulation and hydroculator packs. Years ago, I bought a home electro-stimulation unit and have...

Willa Cather (1876 – 1947) is surely one of the greatest American novelists.   Earlier in the year I read her “Death Comes to the Archbishop”, and I have just read her exquisite “My Antonia”.   The book is set in the prairies of Nebraska from 1884 onwards.   Cather had moved there from Virginia at aged eight.   Her work is semi-autobiographical. She weaves her tale in the voice of a nameless person, a friend of the fictional Jim Burden about whose life the story is told. “Jim” himself moves from Virginia to Nebraska to live with his grandparents.   He arrives by train to the settlement of Black Hawk.   Also on that train is the Shirmerda family, non-English speaking immigrants from Bohemia.     The novel is a wondrous tale of life in “un-developed” Nebraska, and of the intersection of Jim’s life with the oldest Shimerda daughter “Antonia” (pronounced “ant-o-nee-a” with the “ant as in the name “Anthony”.)   Cather brings to life both the ...

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

Molly sent you a message. -------------------- Subject: Hunter The wake is on Friday at Brady & Fallon Funeral Home on Tower Street right by the Forest Hills T-Station The funeral is on Saturday at Saint James Episcopal Church in Porter Square He'll be wearing the 'Free Hugs' T-Shirt he made on Friday for Valentines Day (Thats why he wouldn't stay home from school) The camo pants he was obsessed with No shoes (he NEVER wears shoes) He'll have his lion blanket (whenever someone touched it he made my mom wash it) He'll be in a box because it fits him and he hides in boxes a lot and we're going to cremate him on Fern Hill in the Forest Hills Cemetery For anyone who doesn't know, he died of influenza type B, and they couldn't keep his heart going and they couldn't stabilize him, it ended up being heart failure And the news got it all wrong, they took all the wrong information on purpose When they came to interview us, we told them that it had not...