HOME & FAMILY

Two well-stocked vans came into my neighborhood last week to deliver craft supplies to the nursery schools. After all of the local nursery teachers had filled their orders, the drivers allowed some of the neighborhood women to make purchases as well.

A VERY SPECIAL GIFT
by Sara Glaser

Chapter One

I was born at age fifty! It is hard to imagine, but that was the way it was because my life really began then.

When is He Going Back?
by A.Ross M.Ed

Mummy goes to hospital for a few hours, for a day, or a week or maybe longer, and comes back with a new baby. Stories abound about older children who resent the new baby and how mothers do everything in their power to prevent the 'ex' baby from feeling jealousy and resentment.

Spoiling the Two-Three-Year-Old

by Mrs. L. Raffles, BSc.

When you put your foot down, make sure the issue is worth fighting for.

The Hierarchy of Dieting
by Rosally Saltsman

Whoever has studied psychology has heard of Maslow. He was a psychologist who developed the Hierarchy of Needs, a pyramid which depicts different kinds of needs which human beings strive to fulfill.

Feel-Better Foods!
by Dr. Reuven Bruner, Ph.D.

Chew some vitamin-C tablets. Research shows that increasing your C intake can reduce both the duration and the severity of colds. Shoot for around 2,000 milligrams of supplemental C each day.

Your Medical Questions Answered!
by Joseph B. Leibman, MD

I have been writing this column for seven years, and it has changed much over the years. First, we have been very fortunate to have sponsorship for this column and Glaxo's support of this venture has led to increasing the medical knowledge base of us all.

POET'S CORNER

Letting Go
by Sara Gutfreund

He stands in the dark living room
The mirror is laced with gray streaks
And the heavy, white curtains hang silently behind us
Together we stare at the glass coffee table etched with gold flowers.

There are dozens of sculptures gleaming in haphazard rows
He picks them up, one by one
There is a sigh then, barely audible
A slow exhale of pain
For these useless, beautiful pieces
And the closets full of clothes
The chairs, the tables and the beds.

Who can sort through the years?
The memories slide off the wall and lay upon the couch
Don't touch! Don't touch!
Leave everything as it is, as it was.

So I sit in the rocking chair
Next to the ancient, willow tree
And I think that if I stay here just like this
In this house full of voices long gone
If I hold my breath and close my eyes
Time will roll backward
And the empty house will become a home.

I can smell the chicken baking in the oven
And I can hear the laughter
Rolling towards me through the swirls of dust.

He picks up a chocolate brown horse
And hands it to me
It was her favorite, he says.
I feel the crevices of the mane beneath my fingers
But I still hear a voice
Don't touch anything! Not yet, not ever!

I put the horse back down
And I wonder how to leave
This house that cradles my childhood
With its towering, pine trees
And peeling, brown porch
Its tinted, green kitchen windows
And cavernous basement full of toys.

I can't leave, not yet, not ever
So I remain, lost in the gathering shadows.

He is still standing next to the coffee table
I am still sitting beside the willow tree
We are both waiting, waiting, waiting
For someone to come through the door
Throw open the heavy, white curtains
And say in the soft whisper of one who knows
"Let go, let go, it's okay to let go."

But no one comes
The curtains stay closed
And all you can hear in the vast, empty house
Is a prayer so soft, it is like a whisper from another world.

May the Holder of broken hearts
Hold my heart
May the One who blesses our coming and our going
Show me how to leave
Cradle my childhood
Give me courage
To let go.