Laura Shea Souza

Writer, communications professional

The author as a child, walking with her mother. (Courtesy Laura Shea Souza) 

In my imaginary life, my mom was the first person I called when I got engaged.

&quot;She would have loved seeing my daughters be in the world.&quot; (Courtesy Laura Shea Souza)

When my mother died, I became part of a club I never wanted to join

The author and her mother visiting Windsor Castle. (Courtesy Laura Shea Souza)

Commentary 

Health

Life

Opinion

Thanks to this teacher, I was stopped in my tracks early on, and it changed how I approached the next year. 

Let's Hear It For The Teachers

Teacher Elizabeth DeSantis, wearing a mask and face shield, helps a first grader during reading class at Stark Elementary School on September 16, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Most students at Stamford Public Schools are taking part in a hybrid education model, where they attend in-school classes every other day and distance learn the rest. About 20 percent of students in the school district, however, are enrolled in the distance learning option due to coronavirus concerns. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Connecticut Students Return To School With Hybrid Model During COVID-19 Pandemic

Education

I knew this gift would be the height of luxury for my mom, who seldom wore white and rarely lounged.

I think my mom kept that dusty bottle because being a mom is hard.

In Praise Of The Mother’s Day Gifts We’ll Never Actually Use

The author with her brother, Kevin, and mother, Nancy, in Sandwich, Mass, 1981. (Courtesy)

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A collection of books by Beverly Cleary, whose characters Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins enthralled generations of young readers. (Anthony McCartney/AP)

Her ability to remember what it felt like to be a child, where so much is out of your control and no one thinks your problems are important, amazes me still.

‘How True It All Felt’: Beverly Cleary Helped Us Understand Ourselves

Beverly Cleary, then 90, at home in Carmel Valley, Calif. in 2006. (Christina Koci Hernandez/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

Cleary at home in Carmel Valley.Beverly Cleary, the author of such revered children®s books as the Ramona series, the Ralph S. Mouse series and the Henry Huggings series, turned 90 years this April and over the next few months her books are being reissue

Commentary

Books/Poetry

Books

News

Growing up is still hard, with trophies or without, and so is being a parent.

[M]ost of the issues that at one time seemed to be of life-or-death importance are now distant, often fuzzy, memories.

What To Do With All That Parenting Advice? Whatever You Want

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Finding The 'Sunrise Moment' In A Day Of Parenting

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For The Love Of Beach Days

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summer

Boston

I had an immediate and visceral reaction: thank God I don’t have an infant anymore.

Staying on top of what is allowed and what is not allowed feels like a full-time job, on top of raising a newborn, which is itself a full-time job.

Double Bind For New Parents: Keeping Baby Safe And Keeping Yourself Sane

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family

...something else had happened shortly before my parents bought the beach house: My mom was diagnosed with cancer.

It is still, and I think always will be, like coming home.

The Summer House

Laura Shea Souza writes that, for one week a year, a rented cottage on the Maine coast feels just like coming home. Pictured: The author's daughters overlooking the harbor in Biddeford, Maine, in 2014. (Author/Courtesy)

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Every year, it seemed to me that my mother spent the entire month of December in the kitchen.

The same cookie cutter the author used with her mother, now used by the author's daughters. (Laura Shea Souza/Courtesy)

After [mom] died, I found the Christmas season unbearably sad. So much of what had made it special was her...And then all that changed when, at 6:42 a.m. one Christmas morning, I gave birth to my first child...

Cooking Up Tradition, And Keeping A Departed Loved One Close

In the kitchen with her own girls, a daughter remembers her mother and the season she loved most. (erin_m/Flickr)