Gwen Ihnat

Forgive me for sounding all Foglebergian, especially during this time of year, but a few weeks ago I met up with an old friend from college. This person is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, even though we haven’t seen each other much over the past decade. We were roommates my [...]

My Loyola class starts next month; I love this class. This is about the third or fourth time I’ve taught it and I really enjoy it. It’s basically grammar for grownups, with professional people whose last composition class was in college and now they can’t remember where the commas go. Plus, they probably make the [...]

I fear my blog is becoming one of those “zombie” sites – believe me, Sweet Potato Casserole is not the way I would like to greet the world eternally. Unfortunately, it’s now about five months after Mom has passed away, and I have entered this deep, deep, dark, deep depression about it. Have reached this [...]

I am one of those people who believe in signs. That somehow all of the universe is connected. I don’t claim to understand it, but I believe it. My husband, however, would put my claims right up there with the Easter Bunny.

My mother was also a mystical person. For example, when our family would go [...]

Taking a break from the music project to report on this massive purge that possessed me over the weekend in which I think I threw out half of the things in my house. Saturday morning, Brian and I were doing our usual scramble of getting the kids ready for ballet class, which involves finding ballet [...]

The memorial was about two weeks ago. As I told literally everyone, it was like pulling together a wedding in about eight days. Wishbone catered, Garfield Park Conservatory hosted, some friends played music, and people went up and talked about Mom for about an hour. I made it almost to the end of my little [...]

Here’s the original obit I wrote for my mom and sent to the Chicago Tribune. Happily, they wanted to run the story, and of course edited quite heavily. I actually think they improved it, but here’s my draft anyway:

Ruthanne (Melfi) Ihnat passed away at 10:35 p.m. on Friday, January 14, 2011. She was 70 years [...]

Although the holidays are blessedly over, it always seems a little abrupt. Like the holiday radio station that starts playing Christmas carols on November frickin 12th, then cuts you off on December 26th. You think they could at least hang in there until the New Year.

One of the only things Mom will actually eat right [...]