Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Identically Different
Ninety Four plus years ago, the above twins were born into the world to a loving interracial couple. They were born in Arkansas, a very southern state. Strangely, they recall their childhood as one filled with joy, happiness and lots of love. Them, nor any of their siblings ever spoke of encountering any incidents of discrimination or racism. They often laugh about how they were afraid of insects and would run from something the call, “flying manners.”
By Patricia Stone6 years ago in Families
Retrospect
Night fell around the only car on the two lane road in the backwaters of the sleepy town. A pair of headlights flickered to life as day gave way to dusk, and with it the dangers of deer leaping onto the roadway. Behind the wheel was a naval officer, her sweatpants and t-shirt ensemble allowing her to blend in with the civilians while she was on leave. She doesn't want the attention, she never has but it always seems to find her. The county knew her as the spelling bee champ, and chemist. But only the school teacher knew that she hated the attention and praise. Her eyes were bright with the promise of sandy beaches and opportunity waiting for her back at the navel base, but sad knowing that her time at home was quickly drawing to a close.
By SharonSharpe6 years ago in Families
What Growing Up in Florida Was Like
I grew up in a very tiny town in central Florida. There were mostly woods around my house. The interesting, somewhat strange thing, about where we lived was that pretty much all of my extended family on my mother’s side lived on the same 90 plus acres. My grandparents lived in a house across the pond. Then I had three sets of uncles and aunts spread across the property. My grandpa, being quite the visionary that he was, thought that it would be nice to give each of his adult children a piece of property to live on and raise their families. As children, my cousins and I were practically in paradise with all of the trees to climb and plenty of woods to tramp through. We would spend hours building forts out of pine trees and palmettos. Sometimes we would dig giant holes in the ground and cover them up with ply wood. One of my aunts had several horses so we would go on the great horseback rides, taking the horses over the railroad tracks, down long trails. There was always something to do or some great adventure to have. When the ponds were full during the rainy season we would have mud fights and go redneck surfing. Redneck surfing consisted of sitting on a pool boogie board, using a rope to tie it to the back of a four-wheeler, and hanging on for dear life as it raced through the muddy water. Many times we would canoe through the ponds to each other’s houses. The summer time was truly our favorite time of the year!
By Rowan Finley 6 years ago in Families
A Cathartic Adventure For The Soul
Sometimes leaving behind your routine and exploring the world is the catharsis you need to heal. My family originates from the main island in the Azores, Sao Miguel. We are a loud, passionate, and exuberant Portuguese family that finds joy in the beauty around us and in the connections we have to the world. We had always talked about traveling to the Azores together and attempted some plans, but being a large group full of conflicting schedules-it never panned out.
By Bee Hope Lavallee6 years ago in Families
An Unexpected Glimpse
I feel like this all needs some explanation. There were no smartphones in 1999, and yet that's when the original picture was taken. However, this photo, was taken with a smartphone, more on that later. Believe me when I tell you that there are four extraordinary things about this photo, probably more, but I have time for four. Maybe this will never mean anything to anyone except me, but I need to put it out there anyway. To me, this picture, this story, means everything.
By Paige Graffunder6 years ago in Families
Mommy’s girl
hi everyone my name is sabrea and this is me and my daughters story.. it all started on sept 4th 2019 at 3:30 am my beautiful little girl was born. She was the most precious little thing and I was so happy that she was finally here. The day after she was born she began to breathe heavily and her voice was cracks so I knew that something was wrong. We told the nurses at the hospital and they said they would do an X-ray and do a deep suction that maybe mucus was just built up. They brought her back to the room and said that everything looked okay and that she just had floppy airways. I knew it was more than that but the just wouldn’t listen. The next day we got sent home and I was so excited. The first 6 weeks was hectic and I was depressed and scared because I knew something was wrong she had a fever couldn’t keep her food down so we went to the hospital. We were at this hospital for 2 weeks and they had put a breathing tube in and paralyzed her with medicine because they were trying to figure out what was wrong and she was in so much pain.. she came back positive with rhinovirus but that wasn’t the only thing and I was so scared to hear this news. They told me that she had a rare birth defect called a vascular ring that wrapped around her trachea and esphougus that made it hard for her to breathe and that there was nothing more they could do for us so they had to transfer us to Riley children’s hospital so they could help us more. When we get there they tell us that they wanna try to wait to do surgery because of how young she was and we were already there for a month.. She wasn’t getting any better so they decided to go ahead and do the surgery and after she was doing good but she had to recover and then they wanted to try to feed her by mouth she still couldn’t keep anything down so they decided to put in a feeding tube. After two months we finally get to go home and she is doing so great she is 5 months now and is able to eat of a bottle again and she can eat baby food after a long recovering she is such a happy baby and I love her so much ❤️
By Sabrea vickers 6 years ago in Families
The Hat That Shaped My Life
Each generation has its own twist on the ideal way to live, work and play within the confines of the socioeconomic climate of that time. Some beliefs prevalent years ago have faded into oblivion over the years, abandoned because of functional irrelevance. Gender roles, racial equality and religious beliefs have seen dramatic transformations over the course of history.
By Tammy Hader6 years ago in Families
