It’s been over 30 years since the death of my mother Angela, and about 27 years since I started writing about my true life in this site. In fact, my mother’s death was a major catalyst for this project.

I hold honesty as one of the highest values. I’ve done my best to tell my story honestly, perhaps because I wanted to tell my story myself, on my own terms.

But deep down, there’s has always been a little voice in me that remained afraid of how my role in my story might be interpreted by others. Could I be judged or looked down on?

Ironically, I decided in 1995 to start telling my life story in a blog that anybody could read for free. I guess I was proving to myself that I wasn’t scared of people knowing my story. It likely also meant that I wanted to tell it on my own, in my own way, and at my own pace.

In March 2026, just a few months from now, I will turn sixty. There’s still so much more I want to say and do here. At this rate, I may hit seventy  before I finish writing my true life stories.

My writing style is kind of like a painter: I tend to  “block in” a first version of a story, getting down the essential narrative and aspeccts to establish my timeline. But, because I can revisit my stories to revise them any time I want, I enjoy the subsequent visits to refine a tale, whether to add more detail, establish a deeper context of meaniing or reassert a theme, or just to correct typos or polish my writing. It’s like being able to practise a piece and polish a performance with the benefit of reflection and hindsight.