My grandmother Doris (Dor Dor) left us ten years ago today; thirty-three years and one day after we lost my Aunt Joyce. It’s a bit ironic that the dates of their deaths follow so closely as of the three women in my family – my grandmother, mother and aunt – my grandmother and aunt were most alike in temperament. Both were born under the same zodiac sign, Capricorn, only 9...

Since November began, I’ve been thinking a lot of my Aunt Joyce who passed away on this date 43 years ago. She was a beautiful woman, funny, straightforward and very popular. Everyone called her Ms. Joyce, sometimes Ms. Spence, rarely ever Mrs. Spence. When she left us, she was only 39 – old enough to marry and have four children, too early to watch them grow up and see who...

July is a busy month for my family. We celebrate a cluster of birthdays from July 10 to the 16th. Then on July 19th, I stop to remember my father. It is on this day in 1996 that he broke the only promise he ever made to me. “I don’t plan on going anywhere,” he’d said. But by July, he was gone. Like my mother, my father was larger than...