Mrs. Magoo Works for You: The Katie Shannon Story
In a word, she's hilarious. Whether she's offering fashion tips or digging for clams (yes, there's a clamming episode!), Katie Shannon will make you smile as she shows you how to age gracefully with vision loss.
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, 2021.
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, 2021.
An Artist With Vision: The Bill Porter Story
A visual arts professor with retinitis pigmentosa is using the condition to enhance his skills as an artist and educator-—and in the process, teach the fully sighted to see anew. Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, 2021.
The Bay State Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
As the racial tumult of 2020 unfolded across the nation, it could not extinguish the messages of hope and healing that arose amid the rhetoric of hate. One of those messages was right here in Massachusetts—a planned construction of a memorial to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. Written for Dimensions, published by Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Commonwealth of Massachusetts/Office of Diversity and Civil Rights, 2021 (p. 17).
The Day a Sharecropper's Daughter Met Obama
In 1909, when Virginia McLaurin was born, Jim Crow laws were in effect, and segregation wouldn't (legally) end for fifty more years. For a 2021 article on Black History Month, I mentioned McLaurin's 2016 visit to the White House. McLaurin greeted the Obamas with, “I am here to celebrate Black history!” Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Commonwealth of Massachusetts/Office of Diversity and Civil Rights, 2021.
9/11: "I hear the dead calling to me every day, in the incessant flapping of paper."
This article about 9/11 appeared in newspapers nationally on the tenth anniversary of the bombings. If I could erase one article from my memory, this would be it.
Framing a Career: Beloved Art Teacher Says Farewell
One sunny day after school a young art teacher named Gale Babin saw a group of students gathered under a tree. Sketch pads out, they pored over her assignment, the design of album covers. Recalling the scene upon her retirement, Babin said she worried that today such shade-tree collaboration would be marred by social media. But as her students would affirm, her teaching transcended technology.
Bedside Battleground
Catheter utilization rates at a Kentucky Magnet hospital are dropping dramatically thanks to a nurse-driven Foley catheter removal protocol. From Prevention Strategist, a copyrighted publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. (APIC). For reprint permissions, please email editor@apic.org.
New England Weirdness, Part 1:"You Mean Someone Could Say You Were a Witch Just Because They Dreamed It?"
"They could and did," answered the tour guide, transforming this perfunctory scary-house Halloween story into a bracing living history tour. Its site, Wenham, was home to both accused and accusers during the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. I, for one, was grateful to duck out of the house and into the 21st century when the tour was over.
New England Weirdness, Part 2: "The Death Cane"
Irreverence takes over when I'm assigned to do certain stories, usually those that concern history and tradition. Combine that with my love of all things New England, and...well, here ya go. I wrote this for a small-town weekly. Can't say the editor loved my sense of humor, but Helen thought the story was tops. (And I thought Helen was pretty swell, too. To find out who she was, read my story.)
My Big Break: "Lovin' Lucy, Ralph, Jed, and Andy"
In 1983, when I was just a babe, I pitched and wrote a cover story for USA Today about this new thing called ‘retro TV’ detailing the public’s growing nostalgia for vintage programming. My story appeared a full year before Nick at Nite hit the airwaves. I still think they owe me money.
NOTE: Hang on, I'm still searching for a copy of this one! (I'll have to rifle through the family cookbooks; they're where my mother tucked away her precious keepsakes, and I think this article is stuck between her recipes for New England Finnan Haddie and No-Fail Fudge.)
NOTE: Hang on, I'm still searching for a copy of this one! (I'll have to rifle through the family cookbooks; they're where my mother tucked away her precious keepsakes, and I think this article is stuck between her recipes for New England Finnan Haddie and No-Fail Fudge.)
Melrose Cyclist on Road to Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury
Over the years I've interviewed thousands of people, from Grammy-winning rap artists to MLB Hall of Famers. But it was a neighbor, Ryan DeRoche, who turned out to be my most intriguing and inspiring interview subject. Read my story and find out why.
When I Carried You: Rudy Favard
When a father's ill health prevented him from caring for a disabled child, a neighbor stepped in—and became the newest member of the family. Frank Capra could not have fashioned a sweeter Christmas story.