We needed to get up. The morning was going to be rushed, I knew. But, I let her sleep on. She had conned her way into sleeping with us the night before. She’s getting too old, too big for that. I never sleep well when she does, but still I...
His name was Jerry, but everyone called him Jukie. A nickname he earned by tagging along with his older brothers to local bars and juke joints in the dusty Appalachian coal camps that his nomadic family bounced between. While his brothers were...
There are a few simple things about my life that blow my mind. Living in a house with rose bushes, being able to whip up a cake from ingredients that I just happened to have in the pantry and having enough underwear and socks to make it a couple of...
Let’s just get this out of the way…I am extremely, unimaginably thankful for the life that I get to lead. I am thankful for my husband and my daughter. I am thankful for my friends and family. And, I give thanks every week that have the opportunity...
My little brother, Zack, has been gone nine years today. My sister, almost 10 years my junior, and I, until recently, raged like warlords from the moment she first came wilding into the universe. In fact, two of the only things that we could ever...
A few years ago, my father and I exchanged a series of letters. He was in prison and I was home with a toddler, desperate to know more of “our story”. The letters were the first in-depth communication that we ever had, I was often amazed, and...
Dear Mom, You’ve been gone for 10 years. Some days it feels as if you haven’t been here for decades, other days the shock feels as raw and fresh as it did on that bright, cloudless, Carolina blue sky day when I learned you had finally lost your 30...
Read Part I of The Day When I arrived at our new cottage house with the barren raised flower beds, I saw the Mustang and truck sitting in the steep driveway. I walked around and opened the basement door. When I stepped inside I dropped my bags with...
The Lil General convenience store shared a back parking lot with my grandmother’s apartment. Most days, I stopped in after school for my favorite snack – Doritos and a Mountain Dew. I was still blasting N.W.A. through my walkman causing a bolt...
My Grandfather, Mike “Skomie” Yokosuk, had a few colorful sayings that he used on a daily basis. “Put that in your pipe and smoke it,” “How ya like them green apples?” and my favorite, “That’s like takin’ sand to the beach!” However, the one that...