Benny talking spirits with a shopkeeper in Naples, Italy 2017.
Naples, Italy 2017.
So my son, my oldest child, turns 38 years old today. I know I'm feeling the same sense of pride that most of us feel for our children. He's become a fine young man. One of the many things I love about my son is his ability and ease with people. He knows no strangers and seemingly finds common ground with most everyone. It's' a gift not everyone has that has become very important in this contentious world we live in.
Happy Birthday, Ben.
Jenny Woodruff, Big Pine, Madison County, NC 1979
You think about someone, almost forty years ago,
and what they're like now and
you look for comparisons.
And maybe you can say.
"She hasn't changed a bit," or,
"She's always had that smile and laugh."
But, I don't know if that's true, the comparisons.
It's far easier to recall the memory of a day
with a happy child in it.
My cousins at the funeral of my Italian immigrant grandmother, Jenny Lozupone Galeano, Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC, 1995.
