Category: LIFE STORIES

  • From Notebooks to Keyboard: How I Wrote My Way Into the Digital Age

    From Notebooks to Keyboard: How I Wrote My Way Into the Digital Age

    As a child I was fascinated by anything associated with the writing craft, from notebooks and pens, to keyboards. Even before I could identify it as my passion, I was enamored with writing. Back then, the personal computer was the stuff of science fiction. Typewriters were the real deal—bulky, mechanical beasts like the one in…

  • THREADS OF MEMORY

    THREADS OF MEMORY

    (Cover image by Freepik) I have very few memories of Nonna, the grandmother whose name I carry— fragile, translucent threads that still linger in my memory after more than half a century. The last time I saw my grandparents, my family was preparing to leave Italy for South Africa, and though I was too young…

  • Craving the simple life: Sicily, a Home Away from Home

    No place I’ve lived in or visited has shaped me as profoundly as the Italian region where I was born, despite living on different continents for most of my life. Yet, every time I visit, I feel as if I’ve come home. Whether Sicilian-born or of Sicilian descent, we are forever tethered to our roots,…

  • Reunited in the Digital Age: Rediscovering old friendships through social media

    You’re probably wondering who these ladies are hiding behind their signs. They are Rose, Grace, Maria, Franca and yours truly, Josephine; We’re a bunch of baby boomers scattered across five different countries, and we’ve got this daily WhatsApp chat thing going on.

  • Remembering the drive-in theater: the best pajama fun

    Shenandoah Valley, VA 2002 When earlier this month I read Janet Dailey’s novel, Blue Moon Haven, I was transported back to my childhood. The book is a romance novel about a woman who moves to a small Alabama town with her two foster children, where she takes on the arduous job of reviving an old…

  • Hold on to your memories

    by Josephine Strand (first published in Memoirabilia Magazine in 2016) How I wish there were a recycle bin in our brain for old memories to be stored in. Then, when we’re unable to fully recall a life experience, all we’d need to do is look for the missing ‘file; and ‘restore’ it to its original…

  • Marzamemi: a hidden sliver of paradise

    If there’s one thing I love as much as writing, it’s discovering new places to visit. Although I don’t travel as much as I used to, even an impromptu road trip, maybe just to escape a dreary bout of bad weather, will charge my batteries, so to speak, and do wonders for my sluggish muse.

  • BOOK TALK: How I got hooked on reading

    When I was a young girl, the local library was one of my favorite places in which to spend the afternoon hours. It was before the internet, even before computers made it into our homes. It was where my friends and I would meet to do research for a school project, do our homework, or…

  • Laughter is the best medicine

    Laughter is the best medicine. How many times have we heard this phrase? Experts say it’s good for our health. Among other benefits, it boosts the immune system, relaxes the muscles, and reduces stress by releasing endorphins, making you feel less burdened. I’m a firm believer of this theory. Who doesn’t need a little less…

  • Fields of Poppies and Other Childhood Memories

    How many times do we come across an image that reminds us of something we experienced in the past? Imagine a vast green field scattered with bright red poppies as far as the eye can see. It may sound unoriginal and travelblog-ish, perhaps, but for me it has great meaning. Poppies represent one of the…