Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
New England Neighborhoods
My hometown is located on the sleepy southeastern Connecticut (SECT) shoreline, best known for the quaint historic fishing town of Mystic. You remember Julia Roberts' 1988 breakthrough role in Mystic Pizza, right? The one where she played Daisy, the fun-loving pizza parlor waitress, opposite her on-screen sister Kat, the aspiring astronomer and rising Yale freshman? Maybe not. We here in SECT like to think you do—it makes us feel relevant.
By Melissa de la Cruz5 years ago in Families
Repeating my mother’s mistake.
I’ll never forget the summer of 2008. I had just graduated from highschool and thought my life was all planned out. I had submitted all of my college applications and knew my life was just beginning. I’d never been a rebel in school. I didn’t underage drink. I didn’t try any drugs, but I was guilty of one thing - sex!
By Chanel Zueger5 years ago in Families
Being Diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Pregnancy is not a walk in the park. I don't know who said that Pregnancy is easy, because it's not. One of the first symptoms most women will get during their first trimester is the dreaded "Morning Sickness" but for people like me, it's more like all day sickness, 24/7 sickness.
By Vennessa Jane Perry5 years ago in Families
On the Neretva
Capljina and Sarajevo, my hometowns, have to me become inseparable from the memories I have of my parents before the war; thus any recollection of the streets, monuments, and rhythms of those cities — to which I have not returned — will inescapably take the form of an elegy to them. The thought of returning, except in remembrance, has always troubled me.
By Willa Chernov5 years ago in Families
Fortune Smiles
She woke with a start and turned her head to eye the clock. The red numbers soon registered. She groaned lightly and lifted hands to rub over her face. Attempting to rub away the sleepiness. A long deep sigh and she winced as the alarm started to go off. A hand slid over and swatted the clock to silence the annoying beeping. "Yes, I am awake!" Pulling back the covers she sat upright. Today she was going over to her mother's house. It was time and she knew she had to face it. Groaning she pushed to stand and went to the bathroom. A quick wash of face and brushing of teeth and she was deciding what to wear. Nothing too nice cause the dust and grime of the attic and basement would ruin her clothes.
By Gina Harrison5 years ago in Families
A Home to Hold
The wind whistled through the tall wheat fields. The blue skies smiled down on me as a I law nested in the soft grass that bordered the property. My dad built this place in 1983 with a couple of his friends and a few family members. He personally planted all of the trees that form a wind shield protecting our home from both onlookers and snow drifts. In the winter it always smells like wood from the wood stove that burns as often as we would like to keep warm. My house is cozy, my dad originally built it to be designed similar to a log cabin, only with cedar siding instead of logs. My house is small, nothing grande, just a two bedroom, enough for me and my mom and dad.
By Abigail Issler5 years ago in Families
51/50 Hospitalization: Rock Bottom
It was February 17, 2020. That morning, I went in for a job interview I didn't really want. I sat across from the interviewer, disinterested in what he was saying. But, the smile on my face did a good job at convincing him otherwise. To my surprise, I managed to get through the interview and land the job.
By Erika Hunter5 years ago in Families
Gummy Chronicles
Gummy chronicles: I’m sitting here watching tv and my son yells and grunts from the kitchen. He was eating an Italian sausage and the bun broke. I asked him what was wrong and he told me his bun broke and he hates that. My first instinct was to tell him, well eat it anyway because I’m not wasting a bun. He said “That sucks!” But then the weirdest thing happened. I realized that does suck and I wouldn’t want to be stuck with somebody telling me I couldn’t get another bun. I imagined how I would feel in his situation. I chose to give him some of the power in that moment. I as a parent dont have to have all of the power in the “relationship”. Because that’s exactly what it is, a relationship. Think of how you would feel if somebody you were in a romantic relationship always had all the power. Told you when to eat. What to eat. What to wear. When to bathe. Imagine you rarely ever got to make a decision. Would you enjoy or want to be in that relationship? You could only imagine that type of relationship having a lot of arguing right? Lots of crying and anger? Sound familiar? COMPASSION! I, in that moment, expressed compassion for my child. Compassion that had never been given to me I realized.
By Tiffany Miles5 years ago in Families
The Little Black Book of Stories
Since the beginning people have wondered where stories come from. Are the things we tell ourselves to better comprehend our universe simply myth and the most beautiful way to unravel an explanation for the grand tapestry of connections we see and live each day, or is there more to it? Are they mind-maps incorporating everything we are and have been with everywhere we have yet to discover? Is the writer a conduit, a vessel for the story to come through, or do they stitch them into whole cloth by pulling various threads of imaginings together into tapestry and make something real out of nothingness? Tommy is only six years old, but he’s never wondered once. He knows where stories come from: the little black book under his bed.
By Christopher Logan5 years ago in Families
