MYRTLE
September 2, 2026 Myrtle By Nancy Davidoff Kelton I got my turtle in the pet department of W. T. Grants when I was in kindergarten and put her in a plastic bowl on the kitchen counter next to the sink. I wanted a parakeet or a canary, but my mother said a bird would make too much noise and fly around every time someone opened the cage door. I also wanted fish in a bowl like my cousins had but my mother said that fish bowls took up too much space. She definitely did not want a
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