Election season always reminds me of my dad… not because he was a political person (he wasn’t) but because of my memories of the election of 2012. My story starts a couple of weeks before the November 2012 election. At that point, Dad was in the early stages, and still undiagnosed with, Lewy Body Dementia.… Continue reading Because We Can
Author: Melissa Norton Carro
A native southerner, Melissa Norton Carro has over twenty years of experience in marketing and communications, including her own business, Norton Carro Communications. She has edited textbooks and been a non-fiction ghostwriter, as well as a regular copyeditor for Gannett Publishing. She received her Bachelor of Arts, with Honors, from Vanderbilt University, where she currently works as an Assistant Dean. Carro was a closet fiction writer for years while raising three daughters, and Mt. Moriah’s Wake is her first novel. She writes a weekly blog, In the Middle, about life in the sandwich generation and is currently working on another novel. She lives in Nashville with her husband and blue heeler mutt.
Deadheading
As much as I love my summer garden, I abhor how straggly and unkempt certain flowers can become – ahem, petunias, I’m talking to you. I also detest the very act that prevents them from becoming leggy: the process of deadheading. My mom and I always lamented the weariness of summer flowers when autumn hits.… Continue reading Deadheading
The Bully Within
In elementary school I was bullied. Teased, the wind knocked out of me, caterpillars placed in my lunchbox. I was mocked because I was the deadly trifecta: plump, shy, and smart. My parents called the teachers, who said they could do nothing. (Obviously they, too, were scared of this bully). To this day, driving by… Continue reading The Bully Within
Shana Tovah
Like (most) everyone else in the country, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg hit me hard. Oh, there are the political ramifications, but those aren’t the primary source of my angst. There’s the fact that she was such a wise and accomplished woman, but even those traits, while indisputable, aren’t why I’m profoundly sad. What… Continue reading Shana Tovah
Footsteps Down the Aisle
One of the most difficult parts of the middle years is losing your personal saints—those contemporaries of your parents to whom you always looked up. This week I, and our church, lost three. C.S. Lewis wrote that, “How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been; how gloriously different are the saints." Lewis… Continue reading Footsteps Down the Aisle
Lessons from Gregory
I miss movies. I long for the day when I can be back in a theater, the real world eclipsed for 120 minutes. I’ll be so excited I’ll even buy the greasy, over-priced popcorn. For as long as we’ve been together, “date night” for my husband and me has consisted of dinner and a movie.… Continue reading Lessons from Gregory
Fragility
I’ve always loved sunsets—the myriad fuchsias and violets ebbing up the horizon, the twilight slicing through the harsh sun—but I have to admit I take sunrises for granted. It seems a time of day that most of us sleep or rush through, focused more on our caffeine intake than the start of another 24 hour… Continue reading Fragility
The Purge
One year ago, when my husband and I became official empty nesters, we began emptying our nest. On a hot August Sunday we took our youngest daughter to college, then drove home to finish packing up our house, in preparation for our move to a condo later that week. Because we’re over-achievers/naïve/stupid (choose the adjective),… Continue reading The Purge
The Other Baby
Twenty seven years ago, my husband and I checked into Vanderbilt University Hospital to have our first baby. I was two weeks overdue and so my obstetrician finally, thankfully, offered to induce. I guess Anna was just too comfortable to emerge into the dark, loud, scary world. At that point, in the early 90s, hospitals… Continue reading The Other Baby
Blocked
For a writer, one of life’s most painful experiences is writer’s block. I have found myself to be in its grips lately—suffocating under a blanket of nothing to say. My laptop cursor blinks impatiently at me as I try to think of something worth writing in this blog. I decided to search for advice for… Continue reading Blocked
IN THE MIDDLE 