January was a tough month. Every day it seemed a celebrity died. But the one goodbye that hits hard for my family is my uncle Earl. He would have been 95 in March and we'll have a memorial on his birthday weekend. I am hoping to go to Washington DC for that. I talked to my aunt yesterday who is the last of nine still with us. She's having a tough time as the two of them were so very close. I told her that when we love someone as much as she loved Earl it's like there's an Earl-shape in her heart that's empty and needs to be filled. We all have those empty spaces that need filling. We can fill them with memories and stories and doing the things we liked to do together. It doesn't happen overnight, but it doesn't help to think of filling that space [...]

I don't remember what we were arguing about on the morning of January 28, 1986 at 6:37:53.444 Hawaiian time, but I know my husband and I were once again at odds about something. I can't recall the exact words we said a little over a minute later at 6:38:58.798, but I'm sure we were equally passionate on the subject. With more bad times than good in our eight years as husband and wife, my marriage was a disaster. In a counseling session my pastor asked what we fought about. I retorted that the real issue was, what didn't we fight about. From finances to children to values, we agreed on nothing. I was a fairly new Christian and I knew arguing with my husband wouldn't please God or solve our problems, but that didn't stop me from quarreling with as much fervor as my non believing spouse. As we drove [...]