Elissa Ely

The generation above mine worked long and earnestly for years to overcome gender stereotypes. Through effort and perseverance, keen leadership and insistence, the idea that all women had to be tiny-waisted, home-tidying, husband-seeking and spider-fearing was tossed into a historical fire. It…

Everyone has memories (just ask a psychiatrist), but mathematically speaking, older people have more. It’s our cosmic reward for the joint and bone problems we have as well. This summer, my memories are of the deep-end test. A few times a week,…

A beloved former neighbor, the kind of frontiersman who performed his own tree surgery with ladders and ropes, wired his own circuits, repaired his own plumbing, and offered plenty of wanted and unwanted advice about attic insulation, once came to a Town…

For years, the elevator in my doctor’s Cambridge office building carried patients safely up and down six floors. When COVID arrived, it was no longer safe. Every stranger’s breath was filled with fearful possibility, and even wearing masks, we stood too closely…

Day after day after day, the new library rises with exemplary efficiency. All those who put this massive project together—on budget and on time—need a medal and a bonus in a world that usually awards neither. Watching it go up, I feel…