The other day, Facebook informed me that I had seven friends who “liked” Sarah Palin. Naturally, I first checked to see who they were (no surprises there) and then I posted this: Marlene Merritt is slightly alarmed to see FB say that seven of my friends “like” Sarah Palin. Does this mean they “like” her [...]

The only way I could get my mother to agree to get a cell phone a few years ago was to tack her onto our family plan. So now she’s in New York City with an Austin area code and doesn’t use the phone that much, except when picking people up from JFK airport, which [...]

Ten years ago, my dad died a bit suddenly. By suddenly, I mean that the day before, he was at the cardiologist’s, and they gave him a monitor to wear for 24 hours, because he had some history of heart stuff, and he died before he could return the monitor. So it was a bit [...]

When my sister and I were kids, I remember sitting at the dinner table watching my parents quiz her on geography. I don’t know why I escaped this (I can only assume that, at the age of 7 or 8, she must have demonstrated some grossly obvious lack of knowledge) so my parents took it [...]

Remember the kids from Team Marlene back in 2004? Those special-needs kids that pulled together and created their own charity ride, with some of them borrowing bikes, having never ridden even 5 miles before? I just got friended on Facebook by one of the girls, who is in high school now. I had especially connected [...]

We’re such predictable beings. We go along, hum-drum, during our day, and we know how things are going to go — how the traffic will be, how the people in our life will be, what we’re having for dinner. And then something bizarre happens and you realize that maybe, just maybe, you don’t know jack. [...]

There are times in life when it doesn’t matter how you feel, how uncomfortable you are, how much you don’t want to do it, or are afraid. When, regardless of all those things, you still have to step up and do what needs to be done. And speaking at a funeral is one of those [...]

I’m leaving today to go to my grandmother’s funeral on Thursday, and meeting up with family. Yes, I’m sad, but of course I am – I miss her! But she’s not having to suffer anymore so for that I am grateful. I know people are always saying they want to live a long time, but [...]

My 96-year old grandmother died yesterday in Berlin. Of course, there was some predictability in this, and she had been saying she was ready to go for about 20 years, and she got to die at home, with my mother at her side, so really, it worked out exactly as she wanted it. We’re all [...]