Mary Pezzulo

Ohio

Author. Blogger. Content creator. Reluctant Democrat. Mostly writing about Christianity, politics, and life in Northern Appalachia. She/her/shrew. 🏳️‍🌈

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Articles

And The Rain Will Wash It Away

21 hours ago | patheos.com | Mary Pezzulo

(A caution to my more sensitive readers: this story involves an injured animal, and a gun.)The heat wave ended– not in fire, not in ice, but in steam. The temperature dropped from ninety-five with a heat index in the three digits, to the high eighties and rainy every few hours. The rain made the earth simmer like a pot of rice. In between rains, Adrienne and I went outside. I pulled weeds, and she played with the cats. The Dodgers did not come back, and they will not be coming back.
A Neighbor, On A Dark Night

3 days ago | patheos.com | Mary Pezzulo

This isn’t a good story; just a true one. I haven’t seen the children I’ve referred to as the Artful Dodgers since last Friday. Friday, at ten in the morning, just as the catastrophic climate heat dome began to settle over the Ohio Valley, the five-year-old I call The Mandrake came up to the door by herself. She asked for a popsicle, and she got it. Later, I saw her walking with The Sylph, by themselves, far from their houses.
Blogkeeping Notes For Summer 2025

6 days ago | patheos.com | Mary Pezzulo

This spring, the Pezzulos had an uncanny Easter. We got to organize the world’s least organized Easter egg hunt. I saved a baby bird and found myself the adoptive mother of a traumatized cat. We planted the garden. With the new/old car I’ve been swimming and visiting historic sites. And now I’m busy being the honorary grandma for the neighborhood children. In politics, I’ve been worrying about the federal budget, the sin of avarice, and the increasing lawlessness of the Trump administration.
A Time For Peace

6 days ago | patheos.com | Mary Pezzulo

We’ll be without it for several days now. The abnormally cold spring ended. The morning of the summer solstice dawned bright and steamy hot. The five-year-old girl I call The Mandrake came to the door before noon, wearing next to nothing, asking for a popsicle to cool down. Later, I drove the grandmother of the Baker Street Irregulars downtown to the Juneteenth festival, with her disabled girl in tow. The grandmother was fretting, because the doctors have nothing but bad news.
At Tara in this Fateful Hour

6 days ago | marypezzulo.substack.com | Mary Pezzulo

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The Fireflies And The Sylph

1 week ago | patheos.com | Mary Pezzulo

I’m known for my candor, when I speak about myself. But I am very careful to respect the privacy of the children in the neighborhood, and my own child. That’s why I give the children fanciful names, and I don’t describe their appearance very often. When they tell me their stories, and I write what they say, I change identifying details for safety’s sake. Trust me when I tell you, the Artful Dodgers have suffered a great deal, and their difficulty is far from over.
When Someone Says "It's Just a Distraction..."

1 week ago | marypezzulo.substack.com | Mary Pezzulo

I can’t imagine I’m the only one who is totally overwhelmed just now. I’ve been trying to do a weekly roundup of the political news, and it’s turning into an every-two-week roundup, because every single time I try to write down events in order I get mixed up. There’s SO much going on, and all of it is important. None of it can be safely ignored.
Mountains Older Than Bones

1 week ago | patheos.com | Mary Pezzulo

“Going to Moundsville” is a slang term for going to jail around the Valley, because they have a historic state prison that’s now a museum. There is an electric chair name Old Sparky, and other things I never want to see, on display for fifteen dollars. But Moundsville also has an ancient Adena burial mound, the grave of at least three prehistoric humans, a much bigger mound than the one in Tiltonsville. I love learning about the Adena and I always wanted to see the mound.
And We'll Rally Round the Flag

1 week ago | marypezzulo.substack.com | Mary Pezzulo

Most of you know I live in Steubenville, in Jefferson County, Ohio. I was born in Columbus, but at this point I’ve lived half my life in Jefferson County. I used to hate living here, and lately I’ve come to like it. Some of you may know I’ve gotten a little obsessed with Abraham Lincoln. My teenager likes to tease me about it. Adrienne was the one who helped me make my slide show for that class on the Civil War this spring.
Swimming, At The End Of The World

2 weeks ago | patheos.com | Mary Pezzulo

It wasn’t that I didn’t care about what was going on around me. But I couldn’t think of anything I could do about any of it just that afternoon, so I turned off the computer and put my phone in my purse. I dropped Michael off at work, and Adrienne and I went to the beach, to go swimming. When you live in Northern Appalachia, “going to the beach” means going to a lake. The grass was warm green, right up to the edge of that ridiculous artificial beach the park built up with store bought sand.