I Grew Up as a Caretaker’s Daughter
On Wednesday, my husband went to the doctor for an X-ray. When the results proved inconclusive, the doctor ordered a CAT scan. We texted back and forth while he waited. He told me it would be okay, but he had told
Keeping Marriage From Losing Its Luster
As the jeweler passed my engagement and wedding ring back in a small plastic bag, I could not stop staring at the brilliance of the gems that had been filmed with neglect and time. I had not always taken them for
Sweat-Soaked Surrender
In the hundred days since my daughter’s birth, there have been times when the sleep snatched from her perpetually hungry lips is not enough, making it a struggle to apply the balm of her smiles to my exhaustion and not
Never Too Late To Turn
I do not need a psychology degree to pinpoint the reason for my shift from bohemian to bookworm. My sophomore year in college, my entire world whipped off into a whole new orbit--disease, death, and substance abuse flinging the people
Reaching Beyond Ourselves
On October 28th, 1953, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, David Ring was born dead. Thinking the infant had no chance of recovery, the doctor set him on a table in a corner of the hospital room and for eighteen minutes David’s blue
A Prison Cell Called Home
Seventeen days until my daughter’s estimated arrival, yet she has no idea the transformation about to take place. As her body daily expands with the insulating fat that will sustain her, I can feel every ripple of her limbs in
The Christmas Cactus
At the end of June, one of the two 6 x 8 window panes in my husband’s and my apartment imploded from the torrential power of straight-line winds. Glass, acting like pieces of shrapnel, gouged the wood in our kitchen