Memoir Archives - Deborah Ann Lucas

Never Enough Time

Balancing my personal life and my creative endeavors is a challenge for me, a losing battle much of the time. Often, I make it worse by focusing on what I’ve left undone instead of what I have accomplished. That’s when the rant in my head begins, the name calling on a continuous loop—an endless list of words that help me tear myself down when I haven’t done enough, giving my inner critic the power to make me believe I’m not good enough and never will be.

October 11, 2019November 5, 2019Memoir

GROWING SUNFLOWER SEEDS

I planted giant sunflowers in my garden for the first time last year. Actually, that’s not completely true. Two years ago, I planted eight seeds, two in each of the corners of an eight-inch-high raised bed. When the giant stalks grew taller than me, I tied them to the vertical, mesh-covered frame

June 8, 2013April 9, 2020Memoir, Nature

An artist in front of his canvas in progress

My Big Brother Mike

I always knew my oldest brother Mike was an artist, but I never imagined him as a soldier. Going to war seemed to conflict with his gentle nature. The three of us grew up living in lake towns outside of Detroit.

May 31, 2013August 20, 2022Memoir

Mom and Tommy, her baby brother, and me in a kiddy pool in our side yard in Detroit, Michigan 1954.

Remembering my glamorous Mom on Mother’s Day

n response to Maria Shriver’s question, “What gift did your mom give you?” I must answer, INTUITION and EMPATHY.

I lost my mom six years ago, but since I’ve been working on my memoir over the last four years, we’ve had daily conversations with her (no, I’m not crazy. I talk with the mom who lives in my head, along with all my other characters, real or imagined).

May 10, 2013July 31, 2022Memoir, Women's Issues

In 1968, two red-heads, a mom and daughter, are dressed up in front of their apartment building.

Missing Mom

My mom has been on my mind a lot lately. I lost her in 2007 from a stroke. She worked most of her life, and loved working despite the struggle of raising three kids at the same time. She kept house and cooked after coming home from work, often finishing the dishes after all of us had gone to bed. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t help her very much. I gave up offering because she said it was easier for her to do it herself. I think, now, as I reflect back, that she was trying to make my life easier than she had growing up.

April 10, 2013August 9, 2022Memoir, Women's Issues

THE EYES HAVE IT

Over the holidays, as I prepared for the first of two cataract surgeries, eye drops, dark glasses, a ride to the surgery center and subsequent appointments, I missed the part about the reading restriction: only ten minutes an hour for three weeks following surgery. No email, no facebook, no twitter

February 1, 2013August 9, 2022healing, Memoir, On Aging, Second Half of Life

The storm has passed, the rain has ended.

It has been raining, for […]

June 1, 2012November 6, 2019Country Life, Living on the Land, Memoir

Remembering Michael on Memorial Day

On this Memorial Day, […]

May 25, 2012July 31, 2022Memoir