Claire Bidwell Smith

Dear Baby, You are 22 weeks along in my tummy now, with another four months to go, and you’ve been making your presence quite known. Not just visibly (yes, definitely that) but also with all of your seriously active kicks and acrobatics. Pregnancy is so different this time around — not uncommon for second pregnancies Read more…

Dear Vera, You woke up from a nightmare at 5:30 this morning and your dad brought you into bed with us. You curled and shifted and pressed against me, whispering in my ear and twisting and turning until your warm, little body finally went still and your breathing evened out, my arms wrapped tight around Read more…

The lovely people at Text Publishing in Australia have designed a completely new cover for THE RULES OF INHERITANCE and I love it! Every time I look at it I get a little teary. My mother is going to be on the cover of my book. I cannot even express how that makes me feel. Read more…

Well, Lily is gone. All three of us took her to the vet this morning and we were all together in the room with her when she took her last breaths. I smoothed out the hair on her nose and held one of her little paws for the last time. Greg ran his fingers over Read more…

I wrote a letter to my mother last night, something I rarely do. Letters to my mother have always been reserved for once a year on January 24th, the day she died. But last night, late and tipsy after an evening spent with girlfriends, I tapped out a letter to my mother. It wasn’t the Read more…

My father died eight years ago today. Rather than focus on his death, I thought I’d concentrate on his life. Below is an excerpt from Chapter Two of my forthcoming book, in which I go into detail about the interesting man he was. My father, Gerald Robert Smith, was born in 1920 in Michigan. One Read more…

After my father died I found myself living alone in his condominium in Orange County. The days following his death were lonely ones. After having lived with him for so long it felt impossibly strange and disquieting to come home to those rooms by myself. I turned on music and opened the patio doors to Read more…

A couple of months ago while I was working on the last chapter of my book I came across some old papers from around the time my father died. In them I found a note I had written reminding myself that my father would like some of his ashes scattered in his hometown of Rogers Read more…

I'm in New York right now, specifically on Long Island. I have a quiet afternoon to myself — a rarity in my life these days — before I embark on what is sure to be a strange experience tonight. I'm in New York mostly to meet with my editor, but also to do the thing Read more…

Today marks 14 years since my mother died. In just a few more years I will have been alive without her as long as I was with her. I dread that date so much. There is something so profoundly sad about that idea to me. Each year on her death anniversary I silently calculate how Read more…