Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
My Mothers Keeper.
The splendid January morning sun poured through the bedroom window casting an ominous shadow on my closet door. As I began to wake from a fitful sleep, I laid there curled up with my sons and stared at the shadow, contemplating the last few months. We had all been through so much and everything had changed so quickly, none of us were prepared for the phone call we would receive in the next few minutes.
By Megan Janousek5 years ago in Families
Rewind
Rewind By Pat McManus
By Patricia Mc Manus5 years ago in Families
You Read it, You Keep it
Grandfather's have an irritating way of dying on you. When we got the phone call from his neighbor, mom cried and dad went silent. Mister-always-has-an-opinion suddenly didn't have one. Death doesn't care if you have an opinion. You can't argue with death. I was his only granddaughter. I didn't know what to feel.
By Shawn Bailey5 years ago in Families
Evelyn's Legacy
My grandmother Evelyn passed away unexpectedly three days before my thirteenth birthday. She and I had always been close. My family’s house was only a few blocks down the street from the senior living facility where my grandmother resided, which was situated on the corner of Maple Avenue. As a child, I would go see her every afternoon after school let out. I loved going to see her; she had the most bubbly personality that had a way of making all of your troubles go away. Grandma Evelyn was my rock when I got older and started having problems at school.
By Amanda Tiffany5 years ago in Families
Moonshine on the trolley
Of course, the trolleys no longer ran down this hill, but she thought about them every time she navigated over the old tracks ensconced in the black tar of the streets. Each day as she crossed the intersection and stepped onto the granite curb of Lexington Avenue, she could not help but allow her memory to run, hand in hand with her imagination; to hear the clang of the bell in her mind. She would hop on, skip up the steps, grasping the brass rail with one daintily gloved hand, the other clutched begrudgingly in her older brother's fist. They would ride down the hill each Saturday, to the end of the line, walking the last half mile to the old farm.
By Rebecca Hecht5 years ago in Families
Save Some For Yourself
There is something quite eerie about Watson Boulevard at night. On the once Native American burial grounds now sits a row of white houses. They cast the shadow of everything lurking through the night, even the things whose presence you feel but never really see. Even on the windiest Kansas City nights, Watson Boulevard is still. Dana Creed had just arrived from New York to help her father pack and sell her deceased grandfather's house. Her grandfather passed away a month ago. Her father was so overwhelmed with grief after the funeral that he suffered a stroke and could not bring himself to sell his father's house.
By Shedelle Davis5 years ago in Families
I Became a Mother in a Convenience Store Parking Lot
I became a mother in the parking lot of a Uni Mart convenience store in Pleasant Gap, Pennsylvania. A kind of town never once a blink of promise. I imagined it an easy target for eighty dollar robberies and drug deals, only for it’s smallness and inconsequential existence.
By joy ellen sauter5 years ago in Families
I Admitted My Four Year Old to a Psychiatric Hospital
The elevator up to the 7th floor was slower than expected. I squeezed my son’s favorite stuffed dinosaur tightly against my chest, it’s bright blue cloth reflecting off the shiny grey elevator walls. He had just been admitted to the hospital the night before, and my head was pounding from the 13 hours in the ER.
By joy ellen sauter5 years ago in Families
The Book That Saved Our Lives
Friday morning was beautiful. The sun was bright and warm coming through the windows. We saw a heavy coat of fresh white snow that had laid the night before. After having our morning coffee, we decided to wake the kids to go play in the snow.
By Kelly Loss5 years ago in Families
My Uncle Dennis
I will never forget the day my Uncle Dennis died. He had been sick for weeks and just died of exhaustion. My family is small, so I had to take the responsibility to tend to his final affairs. The air was heavy with grief and after his burial, I knew I had to start tending to his unfinished affairs.
By Michellia Wilson 5 years ago in Families
