A Life of Words

Monday was a pretty darn cool day — and I’m not talking about the weather. My UT Southwestern Medical Center colleagues and I usually work from home on Mondays, but I decided weeks ago that I wanted to go into the office on this particular one. That’s because UTSW’s Black History Month celebration was scheduled … More A special Monday, starting with the remarkable Opal Lee and ending with a TCU hoops win with my wife and friends

A mini-reunion of longtime friends took place Saturday when Kay and I met six former Fort Worth Star-Telegram colleagues of mine for lunch at Istanbul Grill in downtown Fort Worth. Couples Robert and Marilyn Bailey Philpot, Ann Thompson and Joe Guerrini, and Susan and Steve Wilson braved the rainy weather to join us at the … More You read it here first: Just can’t beat getting together with longtime friends and former newspaper colleagues

Fifteen years ago this week, on January 31, 2009, Kay, our two young children – 7 and 4 years old – and I spent the morning with our oldest’s Cub Scout friends at their Pinewood Derby in southwest Arlington. Afterward, the four of us drove nearly an hour to Richardson, a northern suburb of Dallas, … More Celebrating our miracle rescue pup Maisy, who’s pushing 18 and has brought our family 15 years of sweet love

I’m late with this post (what’s new?), but a week ago today, a longtime friend and former newspaper colleague threw an awesome party — officially dubbed “Tommy Cummings’ Bought Out Journalist Get-Together” — in Mansfield to celebrate the end of his glorious newspaper career. Tommy recently took a buyout from The Dallas Morning News, where … More Mark that a -30- on Tommy Cummings’ awesome newspaper career, and on to his next chapter

Joseph Robert Zinecker, whom we knew as “Little Joe” in the Conroe High School band in the 1970s, stood about 5-foot-5. But to his family, friends, colleagues, and anyone else who shared a loving bond with him, Joe was a giant when it came to his humanity, his impact on the lives of others, and … More Celebrating the life of Joe Zinecker: Small in stature, a giant of an inspirational, life-loving man

Sorry I’ve taken a few days off from my five-day West Virginia-Ohio-Indiana-Kentucky trip journal; work, family and fatigue got in the way. Still moving from finish to start, let’s pick up with Day 3 (Saturday, Dec. 30), which began with an 8 a.m. breakfast at Hardee’s in West Huntington, West Virginia with two fabulous Fritzes … More A busy Day 3 takes me from Huntington to Ironton to Chillicothe to visit dear friends – and places woven into the fabric of my two families

Day 4, New Year’s Eve, of my five-day post-Christmas solo journey began in Chillicothe, Ohio, which it turns out is bigger than I realized – population about 22,000. I had spent the night with my sturdy 92-year-old cousin Gene Bowen and his dear 91-year-old wife Jo at their beautiful home on a hill on State … More Hitting three states to visit a cousin and my former pastor in his new church, make a stop in baseball heaven, and drink a beer for Bob on New Year’s Eve

As promised in my earlier blog post about Dr. Gilbert Ratcliff Jr.’s funeral that I attended in Huntington, West Virginia, in the coming days I plan to share photos and details about some of the wonderful people and places I visited during my five-day trip to WV, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. My journey started Thursday, … More Going in reverse: A whirlwind five-day journey ends with a visit with my birth mother’s sweet 91-year-old first cousin

Happy New Year, everyone! We wish you all a healthy, low-stress 2024 filled with memorable events shared with your families and friends. My year is starting out in Louisville, Kentucky, where I’m near the culmination of a five-day journey that began when I flew into Columbus, Ohio last Thursday. This morning I will drive to … More Honoring the legacy of Dr. Gilbert Alonzo Ratcliff Jr., a pediatrician who treated his patients with love and was loved by all

It has become a treasured, tear-inducing holiday tradition for me to listen to my birth mother Betty, whom I sadly never met, beautifully crooning Christmas songs. When I found my three older full siblings in 2005, one of the many early gifts I received in our discovery of one another was hearing Betty’s voice during … More A cherished tradition: Listening to Betty’s beautiful voice on tape as she sings Christmas songs to her children