What happens when an Irish girl from the North Country meets a Jewish guy from the Bronx? He has poured half a box of detergent into a washing machine at their NYC apartment Laundry Room. When she walks in to do her wash the floor is covered with bubbles. She tells him “You’ve put way too much soap in.” And their conversation continues for 47 years.

Love is sprinkled with small incidents petty fights heartache loss and regret. Poet Mary Allen Sochet reaches into her own story to take us through the times before and after her husband’s death.

After fifty years with someone can you possibly start all over again? Does loss overshadow all that came before? Time Out shows us that even the most plain ordinary moments can hold as much importance as the milestones. Loss does not mark the end of the story.

Mary Allen Sochet over the years has worked as a kindergarten and college teacher a psychotherapist and a community organizer. With others she helped build a Children’s Free School a Community Coffee House and a Neighbor’s Network. With her husband and kids she has lived on the upper west side of Manhattan for nearly 50 years.

They have been activists in the civil rights human rights and peace movements. In 1982 they organized “Kids Meeting Kids Can Make A Difference” a youth run international non-government organization to help interested kids from many countries come together in efforts to make the world a better place. It exists to this day with a website run by young people at kidsmeetingkids.org. Mary Allen Sochet has written non-fiction short stories and poetry. This is her first book of poems.