Brevity Blog
The memoir that lived in my mind, on my laptop, in a drawer, inside my heart for two decades had its own timeline.
Chicago Tribune
When I finally found the courage to read them, I gained a better understanding of my father—and myself.
Named one of the Chicago Tribune’s Most Heartfelt Op-Eds of 2024
Under the Gum Tree
Summer 2026
Excerpt:
Man on top, woman in the kitchen: Italians love to dominate. Food was a religion in my husband Gar’s family, like the one they pretended to practice on Sundays. But this one was for real.
Gar’s family was everything my family was not. Big, loud, colorful, smoking like troopers and talking with their hands and laughing and eating with abandon. Food was the epicenter of their lives, an expression of love, a big hug wrapped in marinara and tied with a Chianti bow. Simple food, well prepared, with utmost respect for the ingredients. Tomatoes, basil, garlic, pasta. They lived it, breathed it, savored it. What did I know? I came from a place of stringy pot roast and tuna noodle casseroles.
Affection, generosity, amore, all rolled into one. A little red sauce for the soul. When a regular American girl marries a nice Sicilian boy, as I did many years ago, she’d better learn how to cook.