Stories from my life, real or imagined

Heart and Craft of Life Writing Home

The Easter Bunny Discovered
I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if the Easter Bunny has come.

The Snake
Two small sisters encounter a snake.

With Bells On
Ritergal gets the teacher's goat. Does she also get sent to the principal's office?

Things That Go Rattle in the Night
Ritergal hears scary sounds while she's home alone

Mother Goes Gaga
Ritergal and her mom encounter a silver-haired hunk with mysterious powers.

Grabbing Granny's Dishes
Ritergal takes a chance to get the dishes she's been promised

Micky's Story
Micky never seemed real. I thought he did. . . for most of my life.

My Life As a Butterfly
Ritergal bytes an Apple and sprouts wings.

This website began as a whim. I wanted to tell my grandchildren what life was like when I was their age, fifty years ago. Since much of my career has been spent as a writer of various sorts, and they live clear across the country, I sat down at the computer and began to type. I wrote and wrote, and had a great time recording every memory I could recall from the years before I started school.

Moving beyond those earliest years, I've continued to write stories about events I've experienced, people I've known, and what life was like, "in the olden days." I've developed a real passion for what has come to be called Lifestory Writing.

My stories have taken a number of forms. Some are primarily documentary in nature, recording various details of life and the times for posterity. Others are quite personal, and may not be finished or shared for decades yet. My favorites, the ones that are the most fun to write, are vignettes of specific times, occasions or topics. These are stories I enjoy sharing now, on this website.

As I post them, I'm finding that "decorating" the stories with artwork for the web is as much fun as the writing itself. From some of the stories, you'll discover that my mother was an artist. I have never been inclined to follow in her brushstrokes, but to my surprise, developing webpages satisfies an Inner Artist I wasn't fully aware was there.

People ask if these stories are true. The answer to that question is Yes, and the answer is No, and both answers are true. Sometimes my sister reads a story I've written and says, "That's not what happened at all!" I generally grin and reply, "Write your own story!"

These stories don't represent the precise "truth" of facts. They do represent my memory of what happened and what the events meant to me. In the end, the value of memories is the meaning they hold for us. But these are more than memories, they are stories. Beyond the twists of memory, storytellers learn not to let a few puny facts get in the way of a good story! Also, names and some places have been changed to protect the privacy of people (and family members!) who have shared time in my life and my stories.

Having said all that, I hope you will pick a story from the list below and . . . .

Read on,

Ritergal