My brother died on a highway. I have often thought about traveling to the location where he spent his last moment alive. I am unsure whether I will actually do it. …

Fact: I do not manage my inbox effectively. When I receive an urgent e-mail, something related to work or my children or a health issue, I handle it as soon as I can. …

When you are diagnosed with cancer and go into treatment, people often find you courageous. It happens all over, with every type of cancer. In fact, a Google search for cancer and courage generates over 28 million hits. I struggled with the cancer-courage link when making my way through diagnosis…

As I’m writing this, after reading a New York Times article about how human error and risky behavior cause 93 percent of car crashes in the U.S., I’m angry. Yesterday, looking at my brother’s Facebook page, I was in denial. Two weeks ago, slogging through unseasonably cold weather and bracing…

April 24, 2016 So. Four months have passed, and four friends are gone. January — lymphoma. February — brain cancer. March — metastatic kidney cancer. April — metastatic breast cancer. Some local residents, some not. One man, three women. Three adults (all too young) and one teenager (far, far too…

I cannot reach all of the people in my contacts on my phone and computer. They are not all available. And I don’t mean that some of them are crazy busy. I mean that some of them are dead. I don’t believe I’ve ever talked to people about how they…

I have always been rather a grammar nerd. I was an English major and am now a writer. I use the serial comma proudly and cringe at the misuse of the apostrophe. …

Recently I went on a business trip and picked up a copy of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild in an airport bookstore. …

March 4, 2016 A while ago, a friend passed along a link to an article on the Huffington Post called “When a Brother Dies,” by Judith Newton. Ms. Newton says: “Even siblings we don’t see, who live differently from us, who move in their own world, may be shoring up…