I’m no Elizabeth Kubler Ross.But I do know a little bit about dying. And joy. Because everybody becomes an expert on death sooner or later. And that’s why we have to cultivate joy however and whenever we can. My father died at the age of 60, following a painful battle with colon cancer. When I […]

My mother’s death was a multi-media experience. Anyone who knew Riva would have expected nothing less. The program for her last weekend on earth featured a jewelry trunk show, standup comedy provided by my brother, the assistance of a psychic cat, and the kindness of strangers, demented and fully present. On more than one occasion, […]

I used to joke about the fact that I didn’t want to know anything about my beloved psychiatrist, Dr. Jaeger. I didn’t even want to call her by her first name, Roberta. That would have been way too intimate. Years earlier, I had turned another therapist I was seeing into a mother substitute. But at […]