From hospital stays to Shabbat dinners, a few lines a day became a Jewish way of reckoning with memory, loss — and the comfort of routine. In January 2011, I wrote my first entry in a five-year diary.

A person's diary should be a private place where they can express themselves without fear of judgment from anybody else, and it goes without saying that loved ones should respect that. Unfortunately, ...

I am a diarist and so is my daughter. I am also a hypocrite because while there's no way on this earth that I would allow someone unfettered access to my diary entries, I am more than happy to read ...