In 1962, I was a caseworker, not a social worker, in the Cabrini-Green Housing Project in Chicago. In that era, the difference between a caseworker and a social worker was simple. A soc...

The other day I was talking to a neighbor who said he has found a way to help the poor and improve our environment simultaneously. It’s no secret, he said, that we have a dire food shor...

A tragedy happened to Willie and Millie after years of marriage… All their kids were doing well and had nice families of their own but tragedy struck one dawn before

My father never talked much about religion but he went to Mass every Sunday, the 6:30 Mass where few people would be and he wouldn’t have to deal with friends and neighbors. His contrib...

Used to be she’d tell him what to get at the grocery store and he always brought it back. Now she makes a list.

Every day the same play. The moment I rise, the first act begins, the same plot

Millie on crutches in the day room tells Fred on his walker to find him.

Couples age and a sign of age is w… the husband hires someone to shove… and the wife hires a cleaning lady… Sometimes the wife doesn’t like th… and the husband doesn’t like the c…

Deep into a warm winter the Japanese red maple keeps her crown of brilliant leaves as if to prove to the evergreens especially that big blue spruce

If smiles had echoes all the world would hear Grandma’s bouncing off the stars Donal Mahoney

If you’re a reprobate in recovery you have to be careful what you do… You’re no different than an alcoho… always in danger of falling again. At least an alcoholic has a diseas…

An old friend lost an old friend the other day. Jim said they were both getting up in years and he just happened to outlast Herman. Jim was black and Herman was white but that had never...

They weren’t talking at all, back… Deep in that house, conceiving the… they weren’t talking at all, back… And they’re not talking at all, ri… Still in that house, rearing their…