snow lamp

Based on a true story and dedicated to my niece who died tragically at the age of 20, this story is dedicated to my memory of Lindsey who told me at age five - "When I grow up I want to have 20 children and live in Aunty Sooz's apartment!" In retrospect, I wonder if those children might become a reality when I publish my first Christian kid's book...

Each weekday morning I took my place amongst the jostling crowd at the bus stop. A mixed society of foreign language students, Muslim families, English and American tourists, mums laden with their drop down prams and nappy bags and the rest a mix of nine to fivers like myself. All of us routinely getting agitated as the bus was routinely late.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). My body is racked with pain.... searing,piercing pain. The kind of pain only death can quell.

Hearing the diagnosis mental illness changed my life forever. All the doctor would tell me was Josh would never be able to do. One Sunday morning my hope was uplifted by a scripture found in Isaiah.

It is not news that any parent ever wants to hear – that their 16 year old daughter is pregnant. And no parent wants to hear it from a third party. But that’s exactly how it happened for me.

“I never thought it would happen to me.” Sound familiar? Have you said that yourself? If you have, you’re not alone. Thousands and thousands of women have said those same words – in shock, anger, disbelief – when they find out their husband is leaving them. “The wife is always the last one to know.” And many people wonder how that can be. And yet, it’s true in so many cases. Deceitfulness hides in the dark, cowers under lie upon lie and blinds us to the truth. By the time truth is revealed, it is often too late for many couples – the damage has been done and the death bell is tolling for the marriage that once seemed perfect. This is my story, shared in hope of helping other women who may be facing divorce or who may have already gone through a divorce.

Grants Pass Oregon, population of 9,500 souls, situated on the banks of the famed Rogue River – it hardly seemed like the stopping place for a Four Star Concert. Therefore, it came as a surprise when members of St. Anne’s Catholic Church learned that a group of artists had agreed to fill their otherwise open date, April 29, 1956, in our small town. Included in this troupe were four well-known Catholic artists: Joan Walker, internationally recognized soprano from Dublin, Ireland; Matthew Reilly, the Yankee tenor from New England; and concert violinist Frances Flanagan, a leading exponent of the music of Fritz Kreisler. Topping the bill was the spectacular Polish-born pianist-composer, Severin Turel, who had concretized all over Europe prior to the Nazi invasion.

Ever wonder what it would be like to know the outcome of the Super Bowl in advance? What power you would have over your friends and associates! Well, my brother David Guardino, the self-proclaimed World's Greatest Psychic, predicted with certainty that the Philadelphia Eagles would beat San Diego in Super Bowl XVI. He seemed to have no explanation when the San Francisco 49ers walked away with a 26-to-21 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.