Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
The Effects of Distracted Driving
One Fall morning, cool crisp air with a strong ray of Sunshine was how the day started on Nov. 1, 2016. My Daughter, Brittany texted me around 7:30 a.m. that morning and we texted a few minutes and I texted I love you, not knowing it would be the last time. Today would turn out to be a day that would forever change my life and my family's. My mother was in the hospital fighting Lung Cancer for the second time. She had been an 8 year Cancer Survivor until she got the news that it had come back. I was on my way back from the hospital to go pick up a few things that my mother had asked me to go pick up at her house. On my way there, my cell phone rang and it was Anita, telling me that my Daughter, Brittany had been hit by a car (8:29 a.m) and that things didn't look good and to get to the hospital. I couldn't believe what I just heard, I did a complete circle in the middle of the road to turn around and head back to the same very hospital I had just left from. Upon arriving at the hospital, I did not know what I was walking into, except that I knew things were bad. I was then approached by Brittany's Dad, and the doctor's and we went into a room and that's when the Doctor said that they were giving her brain surgery to help stop the bleeding and excessive swelling in the brain. It was a couple of hours later that the doctor came back and said that she had broken her brain stem and that she probably wouldn't make it 48 hours. The police, who was two cars back and caught the entire accident on dashcam, told us that she was hit by a driver that said he didn't see her crossing the street and that she went face-first into the windshield and flew up into the air, then onto the pavement. My daughter suffered several bleeds in her brain and they were trying to stop it with tubes by draining it, she had excessive swelling, and the top of her brain stem was severed. When the doctors gave her an MRI to see the damage, it revealed that because of the extensive injury that the bleeding and swelling had killed a lot of her brain tissue, which once dead, can't be reversed. When you suffer a Traumatic Brain Injury to this magnitude, it is nearly impossible to have a normal functioning life. As my daughter lay in a bed, on life support in the ICU for nine days fighting for her life, the doctors said that we needed to make a decision to take her off life support or let her live on machines for the rest of her life. I was devastated and going through so many emotions I had never been through before, that I didn't want to lose her, I just wanted a miracle to heal her. We ultimately decided to take her off life support and let her go because she was not ever going to have a functional life again and would only survive on machines and we couldn't do that to her, so on the afternoon of Nov. 9, 2016, we took her off the machines, while holding her hand as she passed away. This was a needless tragedy that shouldn't have happened and that took a life away that should be here today. My daughter, Brittany was 23 years old when she got hit, a law student in College, and a vibrant young woman with many goals and dreams. Her life was cut short by someone that made a careless decision to drive distracted and not pay attention to pedestrians. Our family knows the worst now that can come out of Distracted Driving, SO PLEASE, DON"T DRIVE DISTRACTED!!!
By Tammy Harvison6 years ago in Families
Adolescents 101
SOME QUICK TIPS ON HOW TO UNDERSTAND YOUR TEEN PSYCHOLOGICALLY Adolescence is a period of time when risky and resilient behaviors develop, and also when both positive and negative outcomes can occur. This developmental period is determined by the release of hormones. These hormones trigger physical and biological changes. these changes are accompanied by growth and increased metabolism as well as genital development and the appearance of secondary sex characteristics. During this time, individuals have changes in social and emotional regulations as well as cognitive abilities. (Vijayakumar, 2018)
By Scientist Nyne6 years ago in Families
TURN IN A BAD HAND
I WAS BORN DECEMBER A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS. ALL I CAN REMEMBER IS FIGHTING SCREAMING AND CRYING. I COULD NEVER SLEEP PEACEFULLY. MY DAD WOULD COME HOME DRUNK AND START PICKING ARGUMENTS WITH MY STEPMOM. I HATED WHEN HE CAME HOME. WE NEVER KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT. AT THE AGE OF 4 MY DAD TOOK ME AND MY SISTER AWAY FROM MY MOTHER. AND MOVED US IN WITH A LADY THAT SOON TURNED OUT TO BE MY BROTHER'S MOM. SHE KNEW MY DAD WAS MARRIED AND HAD 2 DAUGHTERS AND SHE STILL ALLOWED HIM TO BRING US TO HER HOUSE AND HAVE A ALREADY MADE FAMILY. DURING THEM YEARS LIFE WAS SO CONFUSING WE NEVER KNEW WHO WAS WHO AND WHAT WAS WHAT. MY DAD USE TO BEAT ME. WHEN I WAS 9 ONE OF MY OLDEST COUSIN MOLESTED ME. I KEPT THAT A SECRET UP UNTIL HAD ENOUGH SECRETS TO SELF DESTRUCT. BY THE TIME MY DAD WAS TIRED OF THE STEP MOM HE MET A VERY YOUNG GIRL .AND HE DECIDED TO LEAVE HER AND GO SHACK UP WITH THIS YOUNG GIRL. SHE DIDN'T WANT A ALREADY MADE FAMILY SO MY DAD DECIDED TO GIVE US BACK TO OUR MOM. BY THAT TIME MY MOM ALSO WAS SELF DESTRUCTING IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP AND USING DRUGS. AT THE AGE OF 14 MY MOM DIED FROM AN OVERDOSE OF HEROIN. THAT IS WHEN MY LIFE TOOK A TURN FOR THE WORST. BESIDES MY MANY SECRETS AND ALL THE ABUSE AND ABANDONMENT I RELIVED MY MOTHER'S LIFE. I CHOSE ABUSIVE MEN I STARTED USING DRUGS.AT THE AGE OF 17 I HAD MY FIRST CHILD. SHE WAS EVERYTHING TO ME. HOWEVER MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY I COULDN'T FIND THE LOVE I SO DESPERATELY WANTED TO GIVE HER. AT THE AGE OF 18 I WAS SENTENCED TO 1 YEAR IN JAIL. MY GRANDMOTHER RAISED MY DAUGHTER BECAUSE I WAS SO BOUND BY MY SECRETS AND HURT I REVERTED BACK TO WHAT I KNEW SO WELL. AT THE GE OF 27 I WAS SENTENCED TO 81/2 YEARS IN BEDFORD HILL CORRECTIONAL FACILITY WHERE I THEN WAS ABLE TO WORK ON MYSELF AND GET THE TREATMENT I NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND WHY AND WHO WAS AND WHAT WAS MY PURPOSE IN THIS THING CALLED LIFE. I MET A MAN THAT TREATED MY LIKE A PERSON A WOMEN HE TAUGHT ME THAT I WAS BETTER THEN MY CHOICES BETTER THEN MY SECRETS AND BETTER THEN MY HURT. THAT WAS MY SON'S DAD. IN 2004 HE PASSED AWAY. I FELT THAT EVERY HAND I WAS DEALT WAS THE WRONG HAND,, WHY ME. I THEN MET A MAN THAT I FINALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH AND MARRIED, I HAVE BEN MARRIED FOR 13 YEARS I HAVE MY OWN APARTMENT MY SON HAS GRADUATED HS AND IS SOON LEAVING TO THE MILITARY. TODAY I AM A PROUD MOM AND I LOVE MYSELF MY FAMILY AND MY LIFE... IF I COULD DO IT SO CAN YOU!!!!!
By Jolinda Brown6 years ago in Families
Happy Second Mother's Day
Yeah, we don’t celebrate Father’s Day. Fuck it. I am a single, white female who didn’t grow up poor but we were definitely not rich either. I grew up in Southern California on 10 acres with extended family. I had a good upbringing and had nothing to complain about. However, I grew up without my biological father, and that was a fact that everyone enjoyed throwing in my face.
By Mae McCreery6 years ago in Families
A Lesson From Mama's Casserole
My fondest memories of my days at Cathedral School are in the Boys’ Choir during my 6th through 8th grade years. Being one of the only Black students in the school (including my younger brother) made me feel like an outsider, in both pedigree and skin color. So music and singing allowed me to connect with the school by bringing a gift that I had inherited from my great-uncle and dad, both professional jazz musicians. I was immediately drawn to learning treble and bass clefs, wearing the robes and ruff I had seen in the hallowed walls of choirs past. My fascination of this new world seemed like a sanctuary from the world I lived across the bridge in one of East Oakland’s poorest neighborhoods. And as my single mother strove to raise two young boys and give them a better life, I was slowly adapting to a culture that I had not yet understood nor even visualized for myself at that time. I was simply surviving.
By Will Hammond6 years ago in Families
DADS (fathers) DAY. Top Story - June 2020.
One minute past midnight and 'Fathers Day' will be officially all over as another day starts; Monday. The cards might stop up a bit longer to remind us of day that we've celebrated and depending on the gift you've received, a lot longer. But one thing that will always remain; ' You' being a father. Being a dad never goes away like the day does, the card or the gift does, fatherhood is, or supposed to be a life long title and commitment. It's great that "Fathers Day" is celebrated and fathers are shown love and appreciation.
By Albert Andre6 years ago in Families
Hurt
Seems like it was yesterday when I saw your face it’s been so long since I’ve heard you’re voice, sense of smell, you’re touch and everything else about you. You told me how proud you were but I just walked away like if only I knew what I knew today; I would hold you in my arms just to get a hug once last time, I would so take the pain away weather your in a war zone or due to this cronoavirus or whatever is causing you pain right now. Thank you for all you’ve done. I wish you could hear me saying that I forgive you for all your mistakes.
By Lizzy Arrow6 years ago in Families
Lesson learned from my father
To tell my story, I must pay homage to a painful past, to a time when the world found itself in the thralls of hatred and division. The history I speak of does not even belong to myself. It belonged to my late father, a professional actor by trade and psychological refugee of the past. While my father never faced the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, the loss of his parents at the hands of Hitler's regime resulted in deep scars that would accompany him through the day. His memories were like a silent personal assistant whose primary task was to remind him of the parents and family he had lost at Auschwitz. A fuller description is necessary to understand the quiet legacy that he would bring to each of his relationships. My father was born in Berlin, Germany, in1926. At that time, the threat posed by fascism was believed to be inconsequential. The conscience of Germany's voters would allow the destructive tendencies to ravage the country. People of conscience would never permit the rantings of the Nazi party to determine the country's fate. That was the belief at the time, a form of psychological denial, passionately embraced by intellectuals and more than a few historians. The country's cultural life gave little indications of its apocalyptic future. A free press still existed.
By frederick Hurst6 years ago in Families
