BETWEEN BUSINESS CARDS™ - A writing and storytelling platform providing content and publishing services by Hawke Girl Media, LLC

In A Pickle

The day it happened, palm trees rustled in the breeze, sounding like spring rain. A great blue heron froze, one foot tucked, waiting to spear breakfast with its beak. My…

I Think You Can

I shoved the bike as hard as I could and let go. As a parent, I was never convinced my life lessons landed with my kids. One cool late September…

Nothing But Net

The ball hit the rim. Stopped. And teetered. A hero would be made — or not — depending on which way it fell. My high school phys ed teacher, Ms.…

Tender Was the Night

I don’t believe in ghosts, but I frequently feel haunted. During our visit to the Minneapolis Institute of Art in fall of 2025, my husband Richard and I were both…

Looking for Gatsby

“You can’t go home again.” The writer Thomas Wolfe believed that if you returned to a place from your past, it wouldn’t be the same. My husband Richard also says…

The All-American

It was a cold, blustery January morning. Icicles draped the parking porte-cochère like holiday lights, frozen mid-melt. A rare recent southern winter storm left lacy ice patches on the dormant…

Crying Time

I wasn’t expecting to learn anything by sitting in a doctor’s waiting room. “It’s such a relief they got all the melanoma,” my friend had said to me after I…

Hometown Hero

Detroit did not come to my mind as a bucket list destination. But it was the perfect starting point for our next trip. My husband Richard was born in the…

Bound to Look Good

My daughter Kristen and I recently went shopping for undergarments. As we walked into Macy’s, I asked the young woman at the perfume counter, “Where do you keep your intimates?”…

Burning Down the House: A Lesson in Generosity and Persistence

In the 1920s, my father’s parents sharecropped land they rented from wealthy landowners in Delaware. My grandmother worked as the cook in the main houses. She was short and strong.…

Finding Christmas

We weren’t prepared for missing Christmas. It was an unseasonably mild December. A wintry mix of sleet and rain started early Christmas Eve morning, turning our yard into ice-crusted soggy…

Waiting for Light

Christmas is coming! On our childhood farm, not unlike hunting season’s opening day, my mother declared the beginning of the Christmas season. It launched with housework. Nestled among over a…

Nothing But Net

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The ball hit the rim. Stopped. And teetered. A hero would be made — or not — depending on which way it fell. My high school phys ed teacher, Ms. Carter, coached all the girls’ teams. She was tall and lean; black-rimmed glasses framed her angular face. Her silky brunette hair bounced as she strode around the gym, slightly pigeon-toed. Wanting to strengthen my college admission application, I had signed up for the girls’ basketball team. Tryouts started. About twenty girls gathered on the smooth wooden bleachers in the high school gymnasium. Ms. Carter marched from her office, sneakers squeaking as she crossed the floor, and planted herself in front…

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