A Miriam Kind of Therapist
By: Nancy Davidoff Kelton August 2026 Issue My first and last psychotherapists are deceased. Several I saw in between them were not all that alive. Two did not even learn to nod in Psychotherapy 101 or from watching Bob Newhart nod as Dr. Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s. Miriam, my first therapist, validated who I was immediately. “You can only be a Nancy kind of writer,” she said when I mentioned I disliked being a h
Cindy's Birthday and Our 59-Year Friendship
Dear Readers: The below essay was originally published in AARP's The Ethel on July 8, 2020. Today is Cindy's birthday, the fourth since we were 12 that I m not celebrating with her. Happy Birthday dear friend. I miss you all the time. (this is us in 2009 at the party the night before my wedding) On my 50th birthday, she took me to New York's Aureole and gave me a needlepoint pillow with the words “Old Friends are the Best Friends.” I ask
GIFTS ON FATHER’S DAY AND EVERY DAY
By: Nancy Davidoff Kelton June 2026 Issue My father got pneumonia 28 years ago in Florida. I had just turned 50. My mother had a broken pelvis and was recovering in the rehab unit of a nursing home. She thought Dad had a cold. My parents’ doctor and their covering doctor were both on vacation. The coverer twice removed admitted Dad to a local hospital near their condominium. Although I had visited three weeks before, my father wanted me there when he got the pneumonia diagnos