March 2021 - Koenig

26 03 '21

A Friend in Need

“A friend in need is a friend indeed.” She was a court reporter. I was a lawyer. We bonded over our German heritage, working in the juvenile court system, and having alcoholic fathers. Each year I endure three months of teasing from Gretchen that she’s “younger” than me. Today the annual ribbing ends as I celebrate the birth of my friend of nearly 40 years. We…

25 03 '21

Accepting Influence

I spy the basket full of folded newspaper pages. They are the pages pulled from The Oregon Coast Today and Lincoln City News Guard – two local papers my dad picks up from the grocery store on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In my six-month absence from a coastal visit, the accumulation is large. Comprised only of…

19 03 '21

WINTERS END

I stopped attending art openings. I took up lifting a kettlebell, staying inside instead of going out to the gym. I was unsure how long before it would be over and whether life would ever be the same again. It wasn’t a winter with coronavirus. It was the last winter of many winters of John living with cancer. Ten years ago, the rooms of tea parties with macarons and brunches with bubbly became a home…

12 03 '21

Letting Love In

“I had no idea there’d be such an outpouring…I’m not used to being on the receiving end.” Tears started to stream down the face of the child turned man whose blue eyes matched his hospital gown. My first-born Benjamin gave his first Facebook thanks two weeks after a driver on I-80 crossed the median at full speed, hitting Ben’s car head-on, crushing his limbs and…

02 03 '21

Nonmarital and Premarital Property in a Nebraska Divorce

In almost every Nebraska divorce, spouses must address the issue of determining premarital and nonmarital property. This is especially true in high-wealth divorces, which frequently entail assets acquired from a variety of sources, and second-marriage divorces, which often involve spouses who have acquired a sizable portion of their wealth prior to marriage. Dividing Property in…