The only game/puzzle my father ever believed was not a “frivolous waste of time” was a crossword puzzle. And he did the New York Times puzzle religiously, in pen, breezing through Monday like a flat treadmill, and slowing down with the incline challenge each day until Saturday, when it was next to impossible. Yet he motored through, and he’d often leave several clues undone and ask my brother and me to help him finish. When he died in June 2025, I found many of those single newspaper pages folded into just the crossword section with the puzzles all completed.
I believe puzzles and games improve brain health, and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to learn to play Mahjong and to find a group so that I can play it regularly to keep my synapses firing. It’s one of the new joys I’ve discovered in retirement, and it makes me happy to have the fellowship with others as well. When I’m not in a group playing Mahjong, though, I do still enjoy crossword puzzles and the bravery to complete them in pen just like Dad did. Since I don’t take the New York Times, I do the Page-a-Day Crossword on the desk calendar and the puzzle on the last page of The New Yorker each week (a subscription that is a much loved gift from my aunt and uncle). I think of Dad and which clues he would be saving for Ken and me. The puzzles are listed as beginner friendly, moderately challenging, or challenging. And while some are brain bending, I don’t give up.
Inking Letters
Still, I motor through
challenging crossword puzzles
and think of our dad……
