Mary DeSuza

Category: Uncategorized

  • The Whole Switzerland Experience- Part One

    The Whole Switzerland Experience- Part One I wrote this in 2025, after my mother died, as a way to get it out of my unending thinking. It’s been cleaned up a bit, with some pragmatic process-related details added for a friend who’s considering a similar trip at some point, and a friend who works as…

  • The Whole Switzerland Experience- Part Two

    The Whole Switzerland Experience- Part Two Bob and I got up at about 5:30 Sunday morning, picked Cathy up at 6:45, my mom at 7, and headed to the airport. We got there about 7:30, three hours before our flight, as recommended. We had to walk Mom over to the Delta counter, but from then…

  • The Whole Switzerland Experience- Part Three

    The Whole Switzerland Experience- Part Three Wednesday was rainy in the morning but sunny by early afternoon. Mom woke up saying “I’ve changed my mind”, looked at our faces, and then laughed uproariously. I’m sure she planned that all night. We ate breakfast about 7:30 and then went upstairs to wait in the room until it…

  • Catch-And-Release

    Catch-and-Release My friend Lee enjoyed fishing but never wanted to catch anything. So, she would sit at the lake, hook in the water, but no bait on the hook. She met her goal. I don’t fish, but I do practice “catch-and-release” with flies. The last two days have been a free-for-all.  It happens once a…

  • Mr. Big Stuff

                                                                               When I was six years old, my mom brought home Smoky, an eight-week-old kitten, courtesy of the librarian who led my sister’s preschool group. Since then, there’s never been a significant amount of time that I’ve been without a cat. Or two. Or three. Not counting strays. Yes, I am a bona fide cat-mom…

  • Olly, Olly, Oxen Free

    Hide-and-seek- Who knows how long people have been playing it? The first known recorded mention was in the second century, in Greece. No report on whether they yelled “Ready or not, here I come!” One of my earliest memory is of my family playing hide-and-seek in our 1950’s ranch house. Our parents were hiding, and…

  • Pineapple

    My only experience with pineapple while growing up in the fifties and sixties was with the canned variety. It came in crushed, chunks, and rings- a necessity for pineapple upside down cake. Like all canned things, the pineapple had a tinny after-taste. But still, a sweet treat. I started smoking pot when I was in…

  • The Golden Path

    When I meditate, I frequently see a golden sunlit path. I’m standing on it, and people are walking by smiling, nodding, laughing, and I am smiling, nodding, and laughing too. From the vibe of the other people, they seem to be fellow meditators or 12 step recovery members or just happy and lucky enough to…

  • Cooking with Sebastion

    Cooking with Sebastian My grandson is a hoot. Almost 11 years old, and I had the opportunity to help homeschool him for a year when his resistance to fourth grade and school in general overwhelmed us all. Our favorite class was Home Ec. He’s a foodie and one of his favorite things to make is…

  • For the Roses- A Thank You to Joni Mitchell

    I was such a mess when I was a teenager. Messy to the point that I spent my senior year of high school away from St. Louis in New York state, at Anderson School, a school for “emotionally disturbed children”. The population was largely people like myself, unwilling and/or unable to deal with life in…