Burnt Chocolate Stories

Barb and Steve - Engaged in 1963 With Steve gone, I've spent a lot of time, this past year, thinking about my part in our relationship. I always believed he was the driving force behind so much of our lives. I listened to, and loved his favorite music performers like Johnny Cash, Elton John, and Sam Cooke who were some of his favorites. Steve often chose the restaurants, movies, vacation spots. He loved and purchased art and antiques, mineral specimens, netsuke figurines and so much more that I also enjoy. But I made some of the major changes in our lives and he accepted and supported anything and everything I suggested or wanted. I was the one who made the connection between Stephen's job at Look Magazine with my relative's marketing company which later became the focus of his career. After eighteen years, I said "The children are all starting their adventures. I want one too. Let's sell the house in Evanston and move." To which he said, "Ok." One y...

I grew up in an apartment and had never lived in a house until we moved to Evanston in 1974, just a few days before our fifth child, Rebeccah was born. I had no idea what to do with the yard, the raised beds, the endless lilac bushes along the fence. With a new baby and four small children, I had the winter to think and plan and learn. While I definitely made mistakes along the way, gardening became a favorite hobby of mine which I shared with my new friend Jeanie who remains close to my heart to this day. Each May, we would go to the garden sale by local gardeners and add to our gardens, a lovely memory. From Evanston, we moved to Long Grove, then a near north Chicago town house, then Dodgeville, then Madison, then Fitchburg. No matter where we lived, I managed to create gardens in small and large spaces. I planted a grove of fruit trees and five perennial circles in Dodgeville, peonies in Fitchburg. The downtown garden was small but held a cone shaped hydrangea and a small stone pat...

  Zoe, Barry, Sarah and Me at the Tower of London Sarah and I had a wonderful cruise down the Danube. And now that I've actually done it, I can check that off my bucket list. On the one hand, it was great being with Sarah for a week. We saw the sights, played rummy 500, met some nice people, ate lots of delicious food. Steve and I had a plan to do this cruise in 2020, then covid hit and we were cancelled. When covid ended, it seemed a river cruise was no longer possible for him. In truth, and in hind sight, a river cruise would not ever have been Steve's choice at any stage in his life. He was my live in travel guide, loved planning the places we'd go and the things we'd see. I so enjoyed those rides with him. Seeing London through my granddaughter Zoe's eyes was great fun. She knows the best restaurants, train schedules, bus stops - you name it, she's on it. In 2015, Steve and I took her and her cousin Mackenzie to London and Scotland for a couple of weeks. We ...