Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
When She Made Me Promise
Growing up, I had spent many weekends sleeping in the childhood bedroom of a woman I never met. Everything stood where she had left it. The white canopy bed with baby blue accent flowers was accompanied by a small nightstand. On this table was a small book called “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, and a tiny lamp that I would leave on all night due to my fear of the dark. On this particular night, I stared at my shadow on the wall. My great-grandmother had been ill for a while. As I stared deeper into my shadow I began to think about her journey into death. All of a sudden it felt as if the Victorian walls of the home where my great-grandmother raised the grandmother I never knew were closing in on me and the floor was swallowing me whole. My breath had become shallow. My sight clouded with tears. It was in that moment that I had come to the realization that I was of this world, and because of it, I too would one day meet death. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was an eight-year-old having my first of many existential crises. My great-grandmother would succumb to her complications with diabetes March 11, 1995, The morning after my 10th Birthday. I am ashamed to admit how annoyed I was that my great-grandmother’s slow descent into death was overshadowing my birthday. Especially after the year I had. I was barely 10 years old, and I had already grown tired of talking and “living” in death. I wanted to focus on life. I wanted to focus on life because it was the only thing that distracted me from my nearly debilitating fear of death.
By Racine Lancaster6 years ago in Families
5 Tips for Confronting a Teen's Substance Abuse
Roughly 75% of all high school students have used tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine. Of these teenagers, 1 in 5 is considered addicted to one of these substances. Teen addiction is at a high as it is much easier for teenagers to acquire drugs, alcohol, and vaporizer products than ever before.
By Aaron Huey6 years ago in Families
Meant To Stay Hid By SYML
It was in August before my junior year started in high school. My mother got a call from my Aunt that said " Grandma has collapsed from a stroke" I was in utter disbelief. Denial even. I kept saying to myself " Oh, she's fine! I highly doubt a stroke would take her down!" My mother immediately left the house to the hospital. I slept peacefully that night thinking that she is perfectly fine. The next day my sisters and I went to the hospital to visit her. walking into her room slowed time. Everything felt unrealistic, I see my aunt standing next to a hospital bed. Next I see my grandma, laying down eyes barely open until she sees us all. She awe's I expected to hear her voice tell us that shes perfectly fine. Nothing, she only awe's and looks at us with her eyes wide open. She can't speak nor move anything besides her left arm. Devastated I fake being strong for my family, hoping that no emotion gives my family support. That night that I came home crying silently I noticed one of my favorite musicians SYML came out with a new song. "Meant To Stay Hid" is a personal song about loss. Its that tangible and uncomfortable whole-body feeling that someone is gone. It's the reality that our memory of them will fade and change. But it's also the beautiful, yet unreasonable, hope that we will see them again" SYML says in the end of his lyric video of the song. I knew right then and there my grandma was lost. She will never return to the strong adventurous woman that was, with me on my day of birth. Day after day during school I would visit her in the hospital or in rehabilitation/ nursery home for elders. I would listen to the song every time we approached where she was staying. My family realized we had to clean out her home and take whatever we wanted and give away the place I basically grew up in, without her there to greet me and hug me whenever I would walk in her home. Finding notes and papers that were meant to stay hid from my eyes. millions of pictures of my dead father in what was his room. I and my mother mainly cleaned the house out having our laughs and cries at what she kept. For seven months I missed school on and off to visit her and cleaning out her house. I fell in a deep depression and failed many of my classes. She was an empty shell of someone I dearly loved. She cried non stop at times while I was there. In a diaper that had to be changed by the nurses ever so often. The day that my grandmother passed I visited her one last time. Held her hand saying my goodbyes and how much I love her even though she was barely responsive. That day she didn't open her eyes at all but only at me once. Her crystal blue eyes softly looked at me before closing forever. My grandmother lived for seven months only hearing her say " hi" and "yeah" to me once in all those days. We had a beautiful celebration of life for her at her favorite gardens in The Morton Arboretum. I made every flower arrangements for her with her favorite flowers. Hoping it would makeup for the times I didn't spend with her while she was well. Meant To Stay Hid put all my emotions and thoughts in my head in the most beautiful way possible. Everyday I wish I could see her face once more and hear her voice again.
By Lindsey Pietras6 years ago in Families
Roll with the punches
How can a statement like this, really be that true! Well let me tell you, I cannot tell you how many time I have heard other say lives gives you lemons make lemonade, but in my experience, I am about to through the lemons at the person saying it. Most think yeah someone else just told me the time old statement, they really don’t care what the meaning is behind what I am telling them, or at least I have had this feeling more than once. What I am trying to get at here is we all think it is just a statement but what happens if a series events in your life gives you no other choice but to “roll with the punches”
By Felisha Savard6 years ago in Families
The "Lullabye" My Parents & I "Sang" To Each Other. First Place in Behind the Beat Challenge.
I elder-cared my parents for 9 ½ years. Knowing nothing about what this journey would hold, I signed up immediately to be their care-giver when my parents started to show signs of not being able to take care of themselves. It would be my gift back to them for being the amazing, supportive, and loving parents I’d known all my life. They were married for more than 65 years; a testament to how they loved and lived for each other like there was no tomorrow. I wanted to be able to keep them together for their respective last chapters and those tomorrows that were then waning. My task was to courageously, if I could, hold their hands as we three walked this holy path at dusk; Could I calm their disquiet as they lost their footing, couldn’t keep their focus, or scrambled their thoughts while losing their physical abilities as well? To call this journey sacred would be true. And, from my perspective, it would also be like stepping unto a roller coaster I had no idea I would be riding. All my good intentions, with wanting to honor my parents by protecting, assisting, and living with them, certainly did not make up for the lack of sleep, the stress, and frustration I would feel in the process of mainly caring for them all by myself, while working outside the home as well. To watch my parents age and lose their faculties, or for my Dad to go deaf was difficult enough, but when either of them began to question my intentions, my judgement, or my love for them in any given situation – those moments were emotionally heart-wrenching. I still felt emotionally drained even knowing full well that those moments were a bi-product of them losing their ability to think critically. My work was in not taking things personally, and staying open to the present; because that’s when grace would arrive. Sure enough, one of those moments of grace or divine intervention occurred, in the later years of my elder-caring. I had a camera/monitor set up so that I could make sure if my parents got up at night I would be alerted and get up and assist them. One evening, I heard/saw that my Dad was getting up and as I walked from my room to my parent’s bedroom, I saw a beautiful, white, glowing, silhouette of an Angel greeting me at the foot of their bed. I wasn’t afraid or daunted by this heavenly body at all. I did blink, but the beautiful Angel stayed until my attention turned to my parents again. It was a stunning, moving image, one that I didn’t question as being real. Overall, I felt protection and a feeling of affirmation that all was in divine order. “Of course,” my inner voice was saying, there were angels around overseeing this chapter in our lives. My parents, “my angels” were being protected. Along with that protection, I’m convinced that this divine being that entered our space transmitted some energy to me as well, to let me know that I was being watched over too, so I could feel support and continue my care-taking assignment with renewed energy and love. The song that came into play, after that angel sighting occurred, was within a year of my Dad passing. It came on the radio as I was driving to work – it was “Goodnight My Angel,” by Billy Joel. I hadn’t heard that song before then and Billy had debuted this song in 1993, which was 24 years earlier. Obviously, this was my time to hear it, to be soothed and comforted by it.
By Kathleen Thompson6 years ago in Families
How to Limit Screen Time on a Limited Budget
There are many ways to limit the amount of time your children’s eyes are exposed to screens and devices, but most of the cost an arm and a leg. You could go to the movies, but then you have to buy $12 popcorn and an $8 soda. Visit a museum? Unless you can find a free admission day, that’s another $50 or more for the family. When your funds are low but your screen-free ambitions are high, you’ll have to get creative.
By Kristin Louis6 years ago in Families
This is How Things Have Changed Since Your Parents Got Married
It’s almost like there are certain rites of passage in our lives. In fact, there are certain rites of passage most people expect to experience sooner or later. For one example most of us go through, graduating school and choosing your career path is one rite of passage. There are exceptions to any and every rule naturally, which is to say that not everyone graduates school or chooses to return for a higher education. There are different career paths available to different individuals based on their experiences, but the concept is still the same. Certain life experiences become rites of passage based on how normal they are to each passing generation.
By Melody Porter6 years ago in Families
5 Family Activities For Fun And Good Health
Fun is a better motivator toward health than future outcomes in terms of physicality or mental clarity. What ten-year-old cares about how healthy they’ll be in thirty years? They care about movies, video games, frogs, bicycles, cotton candy, carnivals, roller coasters, and the whimsy of youth.
By Wendy Dessler6 years ago in Families
Left Behind In Cuba
My family is from Cuba. On my dad's side there are 14 brothers and sisters, all raised on a farm. On my mom's side, there are 5 siblings, all raised apart by relatives since my maternal grandmother passed away when my mother was just 18 months old.
By Chris McLennan6 years ago in Families
