"Mom loved owls. She’d stop in the middle of washing dinner dishes if she heard the hoot of an owl in our backyard, closing her eyes as if she were listening to a Sergio Franchi record." —from Michele Finn Johnson's beautiful "The Trio of Owls" open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“My dad was the kind of guy who would drive 15 miles out of town to get gas for a few cents cheaper. He was a woodshop teacher…and a lover of puns and bird-watching, but more than anything he was a perfectionist.”—from Kathryn Randall’s DAD’S L-SQUARE RULER open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

"When my brother was seven and I was three, our mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died the following year. Daddy told my aunt, 'I'll never be happy again.' And he really wasn’t." —from Nancy Malcolm's LETTERS TO SANTA, 1958 AND 1959 open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

Looking forward to this reading in partnership with @DitmasLit as part of Brooklyn Book Festival!

What an incredible keepsake to help take this daughter back to a more innocent time and a reminder of dad's love.

"Being together in silent snowfall, with the quiet hush of skis on the icy tracks, was a specific kind of soul language only we understood." —from Jenn Smits-Kilgus's beautiful story about her dad, KEYS TO WATERVILLE open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“To me, squirrels symbolize lightheartedness, fun, joy and the value of not taking life too seriously. These are all things I wanted for L….” —from Pola Russo's uncommonly raw and tender MY SISTER'S QUILT open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

"My first husband was a woodsman—a trail designer and builder—so he often smelled of dirt, sawdust and chainsaw bar oil. [But] at some point he picked up a fancy shave cream...." —from Sarah Kilch Gaffney's STEVE'S MANGO VANILLA SHAVE CREAM open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“When she came home from her dream trip, to Jerusalem, and showed me the wooden Wailing Wall, she told me proudly, ‘There’s only seven of these in the whole world!’” —from Nancy Conyers' AUNT HELEN'S WAILING WALL open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

A really moving Keepthings story is included in this Literary Hub roundup... lithub.com/lit-hub-daily-…

"But before we could even think about life without Mom, we had to get through her funeral. We were supposed to deliver a eulogy, to sum her up in words. In a last-minute decision, we summoned the plates..." —from Amanda Kernahan's THE PLATES open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“My father was happiest on a windy summer day on Lake Ontario aboard his sailboat, Plum Danish—the realization of a dream he’d had since he was a boy sailing off the shores of Denmark.” —from @WendyDHudson’s THE YOUNGSTOWN REGATTA CAP open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

"Pop could be tough. I can still hear his anger over my lack of political knowledge and involvement. And his alarm at my college boyfriend’s questionable degree of ambition. But he believed in my capabilities..." —from Shoshana Koch's THE POP BRACELET open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“When I was growing up, our house was strewn with branded items from companies my parents’ funeral home did business with. This spatula came from the gas station where we fueled up the hearse.” —from Stephanie French’s MOM’S CHOCOLATE-SHEET-CAKE SPATULA open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“When my first child was born, I didn’t know I needed help. But Ginger, my mother-in-law, knew. She was as gentle with me as she was with my baby.” —from Martha Bonnie’s LEO THE LION open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“I loved being with her and would follow her around with a spiral notebook, pretending to be a journalist so she’d tell me stories about her life growing up.” —from Emily Hall’s MOM-MOM’S “OLD-FASHIONED GIRL” open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

"He’s small, the toothpick man, less than two inches high, his mouth a crater rimmed with uneven teeth. There was once a toothpick woman, like the man except with a dirndl skirt. I do not know what became of her." —from Ruth Bonapace's THE TOOTHPICK MAN open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“When his dementia had progressed to the point where he hardly spoke and I was desperate to find a special gift for the man who’d given us all so much…I found this music box made for people with memory decline.” —from Teri Roche Drobnick’s DAD’S MUSIC BOX open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“I was 16 when my father came home from his three-month stay in the mental hospital. He wasn’t the ranting and raving, blazing-eyed, delusional man who’d left, but he wasn’t my pre–nervous breakdown father either.” —from Deborah A. Lott’s THE QUACK-UP DUCK open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…

“My father wasn’t much of a cook, but after my mother became sick with Parkinson’s disease and had trouble running the kitchen, he stepped in to supplement their daily menu with coleslaw, which he loved.” —from Jen Berlfein Burns’ MY FATHER’S MANDOLINE open.substack.com/pub/thekeepthi…