Jo’s Blog

“Looking forward to your response.”  How many times have you ended an important – even urgent – letter with this phrase?  You’ve written to a potential donor or you are trying to set up a meeting with a busy [...]

Children remember magic moments from their childhoods without necessarily remembering the circumstances that created them. Events, secrets and experiences live on mysteriously and half-understood in their memories, often forever – without [...]

When our daughter died in India, I was in America. When our daughter died. It’s been six months and I still can’t quite believe it. I still haven’t fully grasped what has happened to us. I am still tiptoeing through my life, [...]

I started dreaming about a club years ago. Disabled kids have limited social and recreational opportunities in India.  Adults have nothing. Literally. I did a survey among colleagues all over the country and couldn’t find a single example [...]

Like many things in India, crossing the street requires more courage and determination than one expects to have to come up with for such an everyday event. Street-crossing styles range from the terrified to the brazen, from conciliatory to [...]

I’ve received many flowers in my life in India. People here love to give bouquets. At birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and house-warmings – flowers are a standard gift. Yet, though everyone loves to buy them, few people seem to [...]

Grief is a funny old thing. These days, we spend so much time together, it feels like a friend. I don’t recognize myself in photos now. I’m smiling, and I look the same, but grief is right there too, crowding for space, insisting it [...]