A Life of Words

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

Someone dearer than dear to me celebrated her 69th birthday Tuesday – the sister I didn’t know I had until June 2005, when I was 44 and she was 50. Teresa (Terry) Ann Workman Zoubovitch has been a loving, understanding, patient, giving, funny, accepting and all-around wonderful Big Sis to me for 18-plus years since … More Happy birthday to the Big Sister who came into my life 18 years ago – we love you so much, Terry!

Thirty-one years ago, on Dec. 20, 1992, this angel on Earth graduated to angel in heaven status when lung cancer took her much too soon at age 71. Driving to North Dallas early Wednesday morning for a doctor’s appointment before work, my birth mother Betty and the anniversary of her passing 13 years before I … More Gone for 31 years this Christmas, Betty inspires thoughts of what life would’ve been like growing up with her

Thursday night at Las Almas Rotas (“The Broken Souls”) in Dallas’ Fair Park area, a bunch of current and former Dallas Morning News journalists gathered to celebrate one of those amazing periodistas. Alfredo “Freddy” Corchado, a remarkable reporter and brilliant storyteller, has covered immigration and U.S.-Mexico issues for The News since 1993. He will soon … More A phrase uttered more than once as we feted remarkable journalist Alfredo ‘Freddy’ Corchado: ‘The end of an era’

We love you, Dr. Gil Ratcliff. The venerable, cherished and revered longtime pediatrician/neonatologist in my birthplace of Huntington, West Virginia, joined his beloved Betsy in heaven on November 11, 2023. Gil put up a valiant fight against PSP, progressive supranuclear palsy, after his diagnosis in 2020. A remarkable man whom I’ve had the supreme honor … More Dr. Gil Ratcliff, a remarkable doctor and gracious and brilliant man, has joined his sweet Betsy in heaven

While waiting at a red light late this afternoon, I got out of the car and gave $20 to a homeless man sitting in the median on Sublett Road at the intersection of U.S. 287 in southwest Arlington not far from our home. A bit later after getting an oil change, I drove past him … More Random acts that help others in honor of a husband and father lost to brain cancer are what #dammkind is all about