My friend Keith has been counting the days to his son’s graduation for years. Michael will speak at his graduation from the College of Engineering at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. tomorrow, on Friday, May 19, 2023. On Sunday, he will graduate with the Class of 2023 in a commencement ceremony on the National … Continue reading #withkeith
By Cheryl Hatch Copyright 2021 In early December, I was heading to work when I noticed the pink clouds in the eastern sky. I took a detour to watch the sunrise at Surfer’s End at Sachuest Beach. I spot a small, freshly-cut Christmas tree hunkered in the sand near the sea wall, tucked in near … Continue reading A Beach, A Tree, Some Comfort and Joy
Today I will join a friend in swimming 11 miles in open water, hugging the coast of my next-door neighbor island. My friend and fellow swimmer created the Swim of Hope as an act of love and support for a fellow swimmer, who is living with pancreatic cancer. I am swimming for my friend Keith … Continue reading Say it, then do it
In a couple weeks, my friend Christina and I will swim 11 miles, a feat neither of us has ever done. Christina named it the “Swim of Hope.” I take my inspiration for this swim from my friend Christina who created it on behalf of our friend Keith, who is living with hope and pancreatic … Continue reading Swim of Hope
My mom insisted on carrying her husband’s ashes on our United Airlines flight from Houston on Memorial Day weekend. A hard and heavy thing to carry, literally and emotionally. A sealed plastic box with the cremated remains of the man she’d married and shared her life with for 62 years. I’m sitting in the seat … Continue reading Bringing her husband home
As a journalist, I have written many, many obituaries. It’s a regular task–a privilege/challenge–as a community reporter. As a journalism professor, early in a beginning news writing class, I’d assign the students an obituary to report and write. It teaches all the most critical skills; it’s vitally important to get the information accurate. Every detail. … Continue reading Writing an Obituary
I start most days with a merry, motley band of ocean swimmers in a cove tucked into the east side of a small island. We have weathered all kinds of challenges together: northeast winds, wicked currents, crab larvae. The summer of 2018, the Kavanaugh hearings tested our civility, yet we listened to one another’s reasons and … Continue reading The Fellowship of the Swim
I was recovering in a Kuwaiti hospital from a life-threatening illness when I received a Facebook message from someone I’d never met, someone I now call Cuz, who calls me Cuz, Richard Sayer. Rich hails from Rhode Island and his people are buried in a cemetery on the south end of Aquidneck Island, in Newport. … Continue reading At the Crossroads
Report by Cheryl Hatch for The Public’s Radio If you’d like to hear the audio piece, follow the link below. Thank you. https://thepublicsradio.org/article/honoring-the-dead-while-respecting-social-distancing Interview with Kurt Edenbach, Co-owner and funeral director, Memorial Funeral Homes in Newport and Portsmouth, Rhode Island Interviewed at funeral home in Newport, RI, on March 25 & 26, 2020 In lots … Continue reading Honoring the Dead While Respecting Social Distancing
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