We began our journey on the day of our visit at 5:30 in the morning as we walked/prayed through the Via Dolorosa (the actual stations of the cross.) It was early dawn, before the markets were open. We were there during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, so in old...
It was a Monday. I was getting ready for work, when six-year-old Allison, after overhearing a conversation the night before, asked me a question. “Grandma, why is Grandma Bobbi scared?” (Those darn kiddos, they hear everything, even when you think they aren’t paying...
Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive Atlantic hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. In February 2007, 18 months...
When Allison was a toddler, we used to hold her up to the wall where all our family photos were displayed and play “Who’s that?” You have probably played this with your own kids. “Who’s that?” we would ask. “Grampa Briese,” Allison would reply. This was a way for...
I had a doozie of a secret I was keeping from my husband. I am not sure really how it started; an oversight perhaps, a simple mistake, maybe I genuinely needed help (gasp). But once this simple little error was born, I conceived in my mind that it was something I...
One Sunday morning after Mass, I was having a conversation with the priest, and somehow the subject turned to community. “You do not have community here,” he stated. I asked him why he felt that way and he replied, “People are here for Mass and they put on their...
