Other than a couple of over-the-top Christmas celebrations when my dad was on a good hustle and thought that Care Bears and Nintendos would make everything better, we didn’t celebrate Christmas when I was growing up. It was a combination of religion...
My grandmother, sister and I were having a coffee the first time she saw my first tattoo. With pure horror shaking her single malt scotch voice she said, “Sosha, what in the hell is on your arm?” I told her, attempting to sound both nonchalant and...
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...
I am humbled and proud to have a piece in the Washington Post. And, while it is an honor, I hate that this story had to be written. However, I wholeheartedly believe that it did. My brother didn’t make the best choices, but that doesn’t mean that he...
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...
November has been a hateful, spiteful month for me. The eleventh month took my mom and my little brother from me. Therefore, it is hard not to hold my breath as Halloween comes to a close and we flip the calendar over. My annual anxiety is...
The glare of the TV was the only light on in the house. My husband had called it hours earlier and tucked himself in bed. He’s always better at accepting the inevitable than I am. So, I sat alone and stared unblinkingly at the news that was too...
There is poor and then there is powdered eggs poor. Along with it’s more famous cousin, government cheese, powdered eggs were a staple in the boxes of food that my family received from the welfare office. If you slapped the cheese between a...
A good friend of mine looked at me over a cup of coffee and held me with her soft, reflective honey-colored eyes, eyes that sparkle like spring’s first fireflies when she is excited, and said, “You know what I really wish, Yokosuk? I wish that you’d...
Hey Kid! I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Life’s kinda crappy, huh? I am going to tell you a few things that will hopefully help, help you get your light back. It has started to fade. I know that, as you sit wrapped in your piled...