Wendy Hodge Articles

Top Hat Tackles Food Insecurity

CONTRIBUTED BY WENDY HODGE OPELIKA —“There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” - Mahatma GandhiOpelika and Auburn are blessed. We have restaurants, cafes, delis, bakeries, bistros, coffee shops, mega grocery...

The Turkey Is Dead, and Santa Is Too Skinny

By WENDY HODGE My grandmother’s coffee table was a polished walnut, smooth to the touch. It was an antique even then, 50 years ago. And on it sat the inevitable coffee table book. Hers was a collection of Norman Rockwell paintings. From time to time, I would enter...

Oh Christmas Tree!

By WENDY HODGE Forget the midterm elections and the political campaigns. The real question, the one that is truly on everyone’s mind (whether they admit it or not), is this: “When is it too early/late enough to put up my Christmas tree?” Typically, the people asking...

Marigold and Cadillac

Times are tough. There’s no denying it. Suffering isn’t hard to find, and if you dwell on it for more than a minute or two it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But I have come to lean on these words more and more lately:  “Although the world...
Today’s Headlines

Today’s Headlines

By WENDY HODGE If you’re like me, the news is both a blessing and a curse. Every morning I weigh the desire to know what’s happening in the world...

read more
Today’s Headlines

Spectacular: Part 4

By WENDY HODGE When last we met, I was in the midst of a bidding frenzy at Bell’s Daylily Spectacular with a chance to take home the daylily of my...

read more
Today’s Headlines

Spectacular: Part 3

When last we met, I was standing on the hill overlooking the crowd gathered for the Daylily Spectacular at Bell’s Daylily Garden in Sycamore,...

read more
Today’s Headlines

Spectacular: Part Two

By WENDY HODGE When last we met, Tim and I and his parents (along with a couple hundred other daylily fanatics) were on our feet ready for the...

read more
Today’s Headlines

Spectacular: Part One

By WENDY HODGE You’d have to be crazy to do what we do. By “we” I mean Tim and myself and Tim’s parents, Jeff and Jerri. For 364 days a year, we...

read more
Today’s Headlines

No Excuse

By WENDY HODGE As I write this, we are 48 hours away from what has become a tradition for Tim, Tim’s parents and myself. The Saturday after Labor...

read more
Today’s Headlines

It Is Not Just A Table

By WENDY HODGE Fifty years is a long time, and it sure does fly by. In 50 years, you can raise a family, work hard at a job, see your children...

read more
Today’s Headlines

My Mother’s Hands

By WENDY HODGE The very first memory I have is of my mother’s hands on my forehead. Her cool fingers, long and thin, were pressed to my skin to...

read more
Today’s Headlines

Keeping Watch

By WENDY HODGE It’s a torturous thing we humans do, keeping watch over the dying. We gather around a bed, sometimes as a family and sometimes alone,...

read more