Stories from the City

This is a work of creative non-fiction based on an incident that occurred in the early 1960s, shortly after my parents moved from downtown rooming houses (on Oxford Street market and Baldwin Street, respectively) to a flat on Oak Park Avenue in East York. The story is oft told by my mother, Maria do Ceu…

ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2020, I WAKE UP and wonder how I’m going to spend the next two days. During the week, I normally wake up, turn on my work computer so my status is active, then get back into bed. On the weekends, I can lie in bed as long as I want, without…

EVERY FAMILY HAS A RICH AUNT. Mine was Aunt Sally. Living in an exclusive area of Toronto, so exclusive it didn’t have a name, she was what my mother called haikara (snob), a proud member of the Curators’ Group at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Music Director’s Circle of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and…