
The boarding school from hell
When my grandparents went abroad in the fall of 1958, they found two very different Swiss boarding schools for their kids.
Intimate profiles of American families.
When my grandparents went abroad in the fall of 1958, they found two very different Swiss boarding schools for their kids.
My mom’s mom read everything in French. Even though she wasn’t French, didn’t live in France, and didn’t learn the language until well into middle age. Best of all, she never bragged about it.
The difference being a mother of a single daughter is that you become part of her family—which I think is very different from grandmothers in general … We come, we stay for a few days, there’s no tension about the son-in-law who’s wondering when we’re gonna leave, when he’s gonna have his family back. We have much more access to the grandchildren.
I’ve been very careful about not giving unsolicited advice to my kids about their children, because I think everybody has to make their own mistakes. My favorite thing to tell my children is, ‘Every day I did the best I could, and some days it was better than other days, but it was always the best I could do that day.’
Earlier this year, I published a long story about a grandmother in Houston, Stephanie Johnson, who had lost access to her grandson after her daughter was murdered and who was fighting in court to be reunited with him. Here’s an update on Stephanie’s plight.
“Buddy, don’t forget,” Laura Mellencamp told her grandson daily. “You’re the handsomest, luckiest, most talented boy in the world.”
Trump’s travel ban has torn apart thousands of families. Here is the story of one of them.
A grieving mother seeks justice.
“This is such a joyful place,” says a vice president of the St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care. “The adults bring joy to the kids, the kids bring joy to the adults.”
When she was in her mid-80s, Kusum Lele lost interest in everything. A friendship with a 24-year-old brought her back to life.
The hopes of a great-great-great grandmother in Kenya.
Ask your grandparents questions about themselves before it’s too late, urges novelist Michael Chabon.
All the Girl Scouts troops in her California town were full, so Kathy Richardson started a new one for her granddaughter and her friends.
When she was six, Simone Biles was adopted by her grandparents. Now, she’s the best gymnast in the world.
I love the way Michelle Obama toasted her mom, who moved into the White House to help raise her granddaughters, at a Mother’s Day Tea in 2014.
Guy and Joanne Sinclair have been raising their granddaughter since their daughter got hooked on heroin.