Marta Hepler Drahos
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Readers connect
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MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS: Tugboat finds home
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Seeing Mom everywhere
I’m alone in my mom’s apartment, surrounded by her things: each one a memory, a chapter in her life.
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I’ve come here often in the three weeks since she died, to hold what she once touched, to take in her scent, to cry with abandon or just to sit quietly and remember.
My sister calls me a sensory person, and perhaps I am. All I know is that being here, among her familiar possessions, gives me a kind of comfort I can’t find anywhere else. -
Marta Hepler Drahos: Wardrobe malfunction still recalled
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Marta Hepler Drahos: A stone's throw away
I’m typing at my desk when I feel a familiar twinge in my side. I hope it’s just that my pants are too tight and loosen the waistband. As the afternoon wears on, the twinge becomes a throb. By evening the throb is an all-consuming pain nothing can relieve. Yup, a kidney stone.
Continued ... - Monday, August 8, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Animals test us
Here's the thing about card-carrying animal lovers, the ones St. Francis himself might certify. They have to apply that love equally to all creatures, even the ones that frighten or repel them.
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I've had to remind myself of that several times lately, and not just when using my BugZooka to humanely remove spiders from the house. - Monday, July 11, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Disgusting killer
For me, swans will always be evocative of summer vacations at my grandparents' cottage on Lake Leelanau, where we kept bread for their visits.
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On the recent Fourth of July Sunday we decided to cool off on Elk Lake in Elk Rapids, famous for the massive swan statue that has welcomed visitors since the 1970s.
Meanwhile, on another water body nearby, the view was anything but idyllic as a man on a personal watercraft bludgeoned a swan to death before a group of horrified onlookers.
I'd like to think his senseless, malicious act will be his swan song. - Monday, June 13, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Humane society in need
When I think of Cherryland Humane Society, it's with pleasant recollections of the hours my family and I spent volunteering at fundraisers.
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But mostly I think of Cody, our beloved shepherd-retriever, who was so unmanageable he was adopted and returned by other people — twice — before we spotted him at the shelter and gave him a last chance.
So when the humane society announced that it might have to close for lack of funds, I was stricken.
What the shelter needs now is a big infusion of cash and FAST. It can be done. And it will be done.
Somewhere over the Rainbow Bridge, Cody is counting on it. - Monday, May 16, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Young life shaken
Many were jubilant when U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in the clandestine raid in Pakistan.
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Me? I worried about how the attack — conducted without the knowledge or assistance of the Pakistani government — would impact our former Pakistani exchange student and her dream of returning to America. - Monday, April 18, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Television candy
You know those comfort foods? The ones like meat loaf, mashed potatoes and mac-and-cheese?
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There are comfort TV shows, too. Mine are "Wheel of Fortune," "Dancing With the Stars" and "The Bachelor" (or "Bachelorette").
Sure, they're brain candy (and my guilty pleasures).
But like any candy — or mashed potatoes or mac-and-cheese — they make me happy. - Monday, March 21, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Stay vigilant
A recent story on Women's History Month and the status of women in America brought lots of memories, many from women my age, who grew up in two different worlds.
Continued ... - Monday, February 21, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Anti-Valentine
Another Valentine's Day has come and gone, leaving in its wake the perennial question: Do we really need a special day in order to show our affection? Shouldn't love be a year-round celebration instead of a one-day event created by greeting-card companies?
Continued ... - Monday, January 24, 2011
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Perfect getaway
When you marry an older man — even one just 12 years older — there's a lot you don't consider. Like the fact that by the time you can retire he'll be more into napping than navigating travel destinations. And that, if it's a second marriage for you both, the likelihood of celebrating your golden wedding anniversary will be about the same as choosing the right gold Mega Ball number. So when I realized our 25th anniversary was coming up in March, I knew it called for something momentous.
Continued ... - Monday, December 27, 2010
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Marta Drahos: Resolutions I won't keep
The countdown to 2011 is just days away, and I'm making my New Year's resolutions. Not the ones I could probably stick to if I applied myself, like swallowing whole the ginormous vitamin tablets certain manufacturers insist on making, or starting my book-club books at least two days before meetings so I don't have to stay up all night the day before.
Continued ... - Monday, November 29, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Be careful purchasing
When a catalog for plus sizes made its way to my mailbox a few years ago I was surprised and more than a little indignant. Sure, I was overweight, but not off the charts — yet.
Continued ... - Monday, November 15, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Re-learning history
We're in Philadelphia's Historic District on our first visit to the nation's birthplace. After a stop for free tickets at the visitors center, we wait in line with a group of German exchange students to tour Independence Hall.
Continued ... - Monday, October 4, 2010
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Drahos: Coconut passes taste test
Maybe it was the slow news day. Maybe it was the potluck smell from the advertising department. Or maybe it was just time for a party.
Continued ... - Monday, September 6, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Animals need more love
Publisher Jennifer Isbell said the magazine will be upbeat and focus on how people can make a difference in their community without overlooking the bad stories and conditions.
Continued ... - Monday, August 9, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Getting another dog
One year, three months, two weeks and six days. That's how long I lasted before caving in to the desire to get another black shepherd.
Continued ... - Monday, July 12, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Endangered ringtone
If a ringtone is an expression of one's personality, I'm a loon. No, not that kind, though my husband might beg to differ. No, I'm simply a nature lover who answers her phone to the haunting call of the aquatic bird.
Continued ... - Monday, May 24, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Caterpillar minefield
When we bought 10 forested acres surrounded by hundreds more, I was thrilled to be living with nature. That was before I made the connection between forest and forest tent caterpillars.
Continued ... - Monday, April 19, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Like being a kid
Here's the thing about living next door to your mother. Those quirky little habits you'd rather stayed private? They're not anymore. "Were you making popcorn at 1:30 in the morning?" she asks, after a particularly late night during which the smell of burnt kernels wafted through the ductwork to her attached apartment.
Continued ... - Monday, March 22, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: Broken health care
My husband needs to refill a prescription for a maintenance medication he's been taking for years. He calls the doctor's office but is told he needs to see the doctor first. He explains that he has an appointment for a complete annual physical in a few weeks and asks if he can get a partial refill until then. Negative, comes the reply, so in he trots for the requisite blood tests.
Continued ... - Monday, January 25, 2010
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Marta Hepler Drahos: The beauty of ancestry
With his sleek black fur, deep chest, scenting and retrieving instincts and houndy bark -- woowoowoowoooooo -- dog, Jesse James, had an ancestry that was baffling, even to his vet. I wanted a doggie DNA test to satisfy my burning curiosity.
Continued ... - Saturday, December 26, 2009
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Marta Hepler Drahos: New Year's wishes
A few realistic New Years wishes for 2010.
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Recording Superstar Whitney Houston Dead at 48
Fans 'Speechless' Over Houston's Death
Romney Tops Santorum in CPAC Straw Poll
First glimpse of Blue Ivy Carter
Absolute Lin-sanity
Hate to be Rude: Bubba Watson
Peek inside Barbie's closet
Test on Comforter in Powell Unit Shows Blood
Angry Dad Shoots Teens Laptop
Hero Driver Saves Kids From Burning Bus
Funeral to be held for Powell boys
Sandusky on having to stay inside and people turning on him
Uzbek Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Kill Obama
Woolly Mammoth Caught on Camera?
Did JLo 'Assault' Marc Anthony on Camera?
Christie Brinkley's Runway Slip
Toddler forced to run half-naked in snow
Halle Wants to Leave the Country
Northern Lights shine above earth
Plane makes perfect belly landing
