Farewell To The Meathead, Closing Credits

by Kevin Burton    I’m supposed to be good with words, but sometimes there just aren’t any.    I’m having trouble expressing my distress at the violent death of Actor/Director Rob Reiner. Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead Sunday and their son Nick is now facing two counts of murder. Sadness, disbelief, anger, …

How Deep Is Your Love?, Good Question

by Kevin Burton   My sister and I had one last shared musical moment, in the days before her death Aug. 25 of last year.    We had thousands of them over half a century together. What I wouldn’t give to have a few more of them now.    The final one came last August, …

Hard Lessons In Death And Unforgiveness

by Kevin Burton     This bit of Burton family lore started small, sprung up unexpected.    We had a maid named Mrs. Long. This was before the basement at my father’s house in Yellow Springs, Ohio  was finished, when you could still practice hockey on roller skates and shoot a plastic puck into a 4-by-6 …

Catsongs: Cat’s In The Cradle, Harry Chapin

by Kevin Burton    (Catsongs is a series on Page 7 to honor the memory of my late sister Pat by looking at our two shared passions, cats and music.)    For this series, I am featuring songs with cats in the title, or perhaps the lyrics. Unfortunately “Cat’s in the Cradle” is the obvious choice …

Catsongs: Music And Cats, Memories And Love

by Kevin Burton    Had I had the mind to write this while she was still alive, my late sister Pat would have loved this series.     It has been more than five months since she died, and reading that “late sister Pat” line above is still jarring and surreal. This is visceral.    Nothing …

Love To You Who Are Grieving On Christmas

by Kevin Burton    It’s deeply upsetting to me that my mother was in a hospital, alone on Christmas Eve, in what could easily be her last Christmas season.    There isn’t a phone in her room and I don’t believe she grabbed her cell phone for an emergency trip to ER Monday night. So …