Krysten Lindsay Hager - Brunch at Tiffany's

This Christmas was a little different than the rest. For one, we hadn’t had mail here in going on two and a half weeks. So no mail in and no mail going out. So I didn’t even bother to send out my second batch of cards. Also the plane that brings food to our grocery store was delayed so it meant we didn’t have anything nice for Christmas. We had just a few odds and ends at home, so we ended up with just chicken soup for Christmas dinner. My husband and I were both sitting there like Oliver Twist wondering, “Please sir, can I have some more?” Later he was grinding his teeth because a relative kept on about all the food they had there. Not cool when someone has stated they are reeeeallly hungry and just had soup to eat. So today our gifts and cards from the U.S. arrived. My husband brought them home during lunch and, since he had to head back to work, he opened his stuff up fast. So after he left, I opened the presents that came in the mail by myself. It was so weird opening gifts al...

I was excited that my contributor copies of the anthology I wrote for, arrived in the mail this weekend. I had written about a woman I met back when I lived in Grand Blanc, MI. I had been assigned to write an article on her and when I did the interview (over the phone), I felt a real connection to her. A month or two later, she called one of the editors to see if she could get more copies of the article. I happened to be at that office near Flint, MI that day for the Christmas party, so I offered to drop them off. I ended up staying for hours since she had made dinner for me in the hopes I'd stay. After that, we became fast friends and spent a lot of time together. She told me about living in the South and the hardships she went through because of the racism in those days. We shared so much and had so much fun together despite our 40-some year age difference. I was devastated when she told me she didn't think she had a lot of time left because of heart disease. I learned s...