Pondering Death at 76

I am, unapologetically, a Pagan. I have been since I was a child which has meant that I never had to disconnect from any previous ‘training’ to ‘become’ a pagan because I never took any in when I was exposed to it in school. Oh, I was exposed to it…

MERION ( Links to Parts 1–3: https://vpendragon.medium.com/scorpio-x-10-part-1-4d599337267a * https://vpendragon.medium.com/scorpio-x-10-part-2-124bea62c252 * https://vpendragon.medium.com/scorpio-x-10-a3883b889caf ) The Rabbit — aka Mommy, aka Polly — was pregnant again and the house in Manoa had two strikes against it: the dangerous boy down the street and its distance from Center City Philadelphia where both she and…

….now you don’t. Victoria Reclining by Neil Kosh, 1980 Back in the day, when my kids were small, spending an afternoon ‘posing’ for one of the most prominent artists in Philadelphia for a painting of a reclining nude was like a dream come true. Nice music, comfortable chaise, nothing to…

In the late 80s I contracted a disease that was officially termed — when someone was finally able to diagnose the problem, which took well over a year and a half to do — “an advanced case of diffuse, progressive, systemic sclerosis.” The common name for the condition is scleroderma…

These guys could be found all over the house… a not-so-subtle reminder. I am — or, perhaps more correctly, I look like — structurally — a clone of my mother. If she, my mother, had been Cuban, we’d have looked something like distant twins, but while my body took after…

I never played pretend Queen… or Princess for that matter. Never mind your Kings and Queens and whatnot… way too much responsibility there… there’s only one title I want and that’s “Ole’ Lady.” I was never one of those kids who dreaded getting older. Those kids probably all had decent…

Some people like to play games… and I’m not referring here to “playing head games” I’m talking about cards and chess and Monopoly and things like that. I’ve never been a big fan of competition for whatever reason, and I am — emphatically — NO kind of a strategist, so…

Part Three Polly and Memo had taken advantage of the time they had together after Polly’s return to the states to go house hunting. They’d found a three-story house in a residential suburb of Philadelphia with a yard and a garage and, best of all, a cellar that had been…