The first wail of mourning that I ever heard in my life was at my great-aunt Trudy’s funeral. For forty-five years, Aunt Trudy had been my great-aunt Charlotte’s – what’s the word here? “Room mate?” ...

I always call her Aunt Trudy, because she’s been family for years. My uncle, Ellsworth Gooding, was a saxophonist who played a lot around Philadelphia and toured. He was in the Army band. He was in ...

The first wail of mourning that I ever heard in my life was at my great-aunt Trudy’s funeral. For 45 years, my great-aunts, Trudy and Charlotte, lived together. They shared a small, plainly furnished ...