When I turned nine years old, December 19th, 1958, my mother told me it would be the best year of my life. Â Six days later I had reason to be concerned. Â It was a warm and rainy Christmas and my dad started drinking early. Christmas was hard on my dad for it reminded him of […]
Christmas, 1993 The 75 year old hand that gestured was steady. Â It belonged to a strong arm and chest still thick with muscle, but pain had crept into all his joints. Â Movements that once were automatic now took great effort. Â “Don’t go back there.” Bob’s voice was gentle melodic and firm. “Its full of […]
It’s a Belgian custom to photograph the newly dead and send this photo on to family and friends. Betty, Valere Spetebroot’s widow, asked me to perform this service so there I was camera in hand not wanting to believe what I was about to document. Valere, in life, was constantly in motion and always the […]
You looked at a stuffed bear and saw a brotherhood festival, full of games and rides and inspired music.  An empty bowl was a reminder  of  empty stomachs and you saw a food program where mothers with their young, hungry children would receive desperately needed food with dignity. You walked through a gutted building and […]
The mounty shot his gun into the air, half-wolf sled dogs howled on cue and one hundred crazy people launched themselves into the icy mist on top of the world. Â The gunshot thrilled even as it woke the demons that would chase us for twenty-six miles. Â There was no turning back. The thrill transformed into […]
LeRoy Foster was missing. LeRoy, a short, black, gay, 66  year old, blind, artist with two useless legs lived in a dilapidated, abandoned theater on Livernois in Detroit.  He was my friend and I used to visit him and sometimes we’d go on small adventures.  In the winter of  1992 I called and knocked […]
There’s nothing like spending Valentines Day at a catholic seminary.  Its what I did 40 years ago and it may have been the worst day of my life.  There have been a lot of  cards and flowers and girlfriends since that day and you would think that my older, wiser self would would be able […]
Its the holidays and I didn’t get a Christmas card from my Aunt Simone. Nor did I receive my birthday card this year-the card with those words so full of love I can feel it busting through the envelope before I have a chance to open it. Because she’s lived in Paradise, California and I […]
My name is Jerry Lemenu and I am proud to call myself a buffalo. Anyone of Belgian ancestry from the Detroit area shares this distinction. Why a buffalo? Well there are a few possible explanations. Valere Spetebroot said it was when Belgians fought they led with their heads like buffalos. Henry Verlinden says its because […]