All posts of flourish

Becoming a Caregiver: Transitioning into caring for aging parents

By Amanda Flinn When Tina Moore of Sikeston, Mo., was attending nursing school, she had no idea how useful her skills would be in caring for her aging mother, Alice Smith, and her mother-in-law, Alma Moore. While the women entered her home at different times — Smith for the last two and a half years […]
8 months ago

Vacation-themed reads

Curated by: Kayla Thompson, Adult Services, Cape Girardeau Public Library The month of August signals a lot of things, but mostly it reminds me of back-to-school fever. The feeling can be bittersweet, so here are a few vacation-themed reads to get the most out of that summer feeling vibe. One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle: […]
8 months ago

meet along the way: Becky Brown

By Amanda Flinn This story was first published in the August 2023 issue of “The Best Years” as “Faces of Southeast Missouri: Becky Brown.” Becky Brown grew up on her family’s farm near Olive Branch, Ill. While the farm harvested wheat, corn and soybeans, her grandfather’s garden was her personal favorite. As he walked through […]
9 months ago

meet along the way: Shirley K. Davis

This story was originally published as “The Pie Angel: Local woman blesses people with homemade food and hospitality” in the May 2023 issue of The Best Years. It seems everyone who knows Shirley K. Davis has a story about the ways the “Pie Angel” has touched their life. For example, she cooked for disaster relief […]
9 months ago

meet along the way: Taffy McMullin

By Jasmine Jones This story was originally published as “Community Cookbook: Barbecue Brisket, by Taffy McMullin from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Cape Girardeau” in the May 2023 issue of The Best Years. Taffy McMullin grew up on a farm between Sikeston, Mo., and Dexter, Mo., with her mother, father and 14 […]
9 months ago

A good read in the great outdoors

Curated by: Kayla Thompson, Adult Services, Cape Girardeau Public Library July is National Picnic Month! So, in celebration, here are a few titles that can be found at the Cape Girardeau Public Library that give off Picnic vibes. So grab a book, a bottle of sparkling grape juice, and your favorite finger foods and take […]
9 months ago

Stories of kindness, friendship, and community

Curated by: Kayla Thompson, Adult Services, Cape Girardeau Public Library June symbolizes the start of the library’s Summer Reading Program and this year’s theme is “All Together Now”. Join us in promoting a summer full of kindness, friendship, community, and reading! Here are a few titles to start us off: The People We Keep by […]
10 months ago

Eating Foods from Childhood Again: A v. sophisticated taste test

Kids of the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s, unite: We grew up in the heyday of pre-packaged foods advertised to children — especially if you’re a product of the 1980s, 1990s or 2000s — and it’s fun to reminisce about those snacks all these years later. But the question remains: Do these foods hold […]
11 months ago

from the editor: Summer 2023, “nostalgia”

We didn’t get tickets to Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour. We tried really hard, but we were 11,000 and some people back in the Ticketmaster queue, and it didn’t happen. So, instead, we decided to dress up as our favorite T. Swift era, make our own playlist of our favorite Taylor Swift songs from each album […]
11 months ago

Home is a Purple School Bus: Local couple embraces tiny living

By Jasmine Jones When Kara and Evan Steffens drive by a schoolyard full of buses, Evan points at the rows of yellow and jokingly exclaims, “Look at all those houses!” It’s because the couple has transformed a 68-passenger school bus, which they bought in September 2020, into their full-time home. Many people said the couple […]
11 months ago