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Most recently published stories in Families.
Surviving Loss
People do not truly look at things in life. We experience so much during our every day but yet we miss it as it happens. We do not notice these things until they are brought to our attention. Today I notice every ounce of detail that God sends my way. Whether it's the gorgeous blue skies or the color of the mountains in spring. For the last year and 2 months, I have looked at everything and everyone in life so much more closely than I did back then. I take every day as a gift and every opportunity as a sign. In the past I was never one to preach to God for help or to pray for a sick friend. I always believed in God but on April 16, 2017, I really looked to him for guidance and strength. On April 16, 2017, I had woken up to a phone call that no mother ever wants to hear. A phone call that would put you in a state of shock, a phone call that you would never think you would recover from. My youngest son, Bretlin, who is 2-years-old and just a month shy of 3, did not wake up that morning. This day was Easter Sunday, and all kids on Easter Sunday run to their baskets and look for the goodies the Easter Bunny had left them. But God had a plan for Bretlin that no one knew of but God himself, and I believe Bretlin knew too. At the moment of receiving this phone call, I was in New Jersey visiting with family and Bretlin was spending the weekend with his father. I was three hours away from home! To get a call and to be that far away from him crushed me. I cried the whole way back. Still in shock and disbelief, I prayed to God to save him but it was too late. I praise the Lycoming County Coroner for waiting for my return, just so I could see him before he was taken away. My sweet Bretlin was healthy and was never sick! During the week he was fighting a head cold and was seen by the doctor. Medicine was prescribed to treat a small ear infection. He was perfectly fine and getting better come time for him to go to his father's. Later we were notified of his cause of death. They told us that the medicine was not treating the ear infection like it should have. While he laid to rest the night before, all ready to wake the next day for the Easter Bunny... Bretlin's heart stopped in his sleep at 4 AM Easter Morning. The infection in his body had attacked his heart, causing it to stop in his sleep. Going peacefully with the lord, I envision God holding his little hand and walking at his side to the gold gates. The day before I had spoken to Bretlin on the phone and the last thing he said to me was "Wuve you, Mama." My forever favorite words!
By Lindsey Bierly8 years ago in Families
My Prayer to You, Granny
Dear Granny, The morning I woke up to the horrifying phone call, I drove fast to your side; I prayed for God to wake you up. I prayed that you not have to go this way, because you deserved a peaceful eternal slumber. I prayed that you not live in a state of fear or pain, that you’d get better, wake up, and experience all of the love surrounding your bed. I prayed you stay with us a little longer so I can wish you a happy belated birthday from just days before, a happy belated Mother’s Day that I was drunk for, and only wrote a post on social media while feeling sorry for my stressed out self.
By Anna Paige8 years ago in Families
Mom and Me. Top Story - June 2018.
Full House: How Living With My Mom Has Kept Me Sane I moved out at the ripe old age of 29. Some say this is too old and experienced to be moving out and experiencing things. In our South Asian culture, where the laws are strict and deter children from moving out, I was a rebel with a cause. I had met a new man and he happened to live on the other side of the country. After a couple of years of texts, phone calls, one trip in Las Vegas to make sure the other in fact existed and was not a bot (Capchas included), I decided to cut all the clutter and make it official. Again, I was bold, brave, and an Indian girl set on busting through the doors of how it's been to create new ways of living fearlessly, for the culture. How naïve I was. About six hours in, I knew something was amiss and I wasn't welcome. After about three months, he told he had found someone else and I was left to fend for myself. For four years. The idea of this makes me shudder, as does Captain Morgan spiced dark rum, which kept me from losing my marbles and jumping off my 24th floor apartment. In March of this year, after several failed attempts at finding someone suitable, and a pretty long stint, by millennial standards, at a soul crushing corporate job, I booked a one way ticket back home. What did home hold for me? My younger sister, my dark black (with some greys) shih tzu, and my best friend; my mother. Our relationships over the years had been a roller coaster; one filled with co-dependence and, at the end, the realization that we needed to completely re-define it and ourselves to move forward. Her struggles with mental illness, divorce, #widowlife, ailing parents, psycho relatives, and everything in between had taken a toll on my young childhood, so the majority of my twenties were spent trying to transform her into the mom I knew was hiding underneath the medication and manic episodes. If I could just help her see the woman I saw, I knew I could get my mom and maybe some of my childhood back.
By Seema Kapoor8 years ago in Families
A Little About Twins
I'm the youngest of three siblings. There's my older sister, who I will call 'S' for privacy reasons, and then my older brother 'N'. S is much older than the both of us, and, at first glance, it's more than easy to tell just that. However, the case with my brother N is a little different-
By CagedPandaBabe .8 years ago in Families
A Day in the Life
It's 6:30 AM and you're woken up by an obnoxious alarm. You wait for the snoring mass beside you to get up and turn it off. It is his alarm clock after all. As you lay there praying the smaller snoring mass, who crawled into your bed at some point in the night, doesn't wake up, you feel the bed shift and the blaring noise stop. You can relax, she didn't wake up. You feel yourself drifting back to sleep to the sounds of your husband getting ready for work.
By Hannah Fricker8 years ago in Families
Letting Go
The sun was covered by a thick blanket of deep grey clouds that covered any blue for as far as anyone could see. On this cold, cloudy New York city morning, she walked quickly into her favorite bookshop. Just as she approaches the rain starts to fall, drizzles at first but as she makes it in the door it starts to pour. She finds at the front door a box with a sign that says “Take some inspiration to chase away a bad day.” She reached into the box and pulls out a slip of paper, she made her way to her favorite, oversized green chair; curled up into it. She opened up the slip of paper and read the words: “Don’t let anyone dim your shine.” She laid her head back and closed her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek and she thought of the words that he used to say. She tried to remember the words said in his voice, something he used to say to her almost daily and yet she couldn’t summon his voice to her memory. Tears started to fill her eyes as she thought about the fact that it had only been two weeks but had already begun to fade from her mind.
By Alexandrea Callaghan8 years ago in Families
Am I Doing It Right?
Most young girls dream of the day they will find their happily ever after. Meet the perfect guy, have the perfect wedding, and then raise the perfect child together. Some may wish for a different gendered spouse or a variance in the amount of children, but that is the dream. When that dream starts to finally come true, nothing really prepares you for the reality of what it is you were actually wishing for. A lot of times, things never really go according to how you plan. It may be out of order. Or it may just not be in the time frame you had imagined. No matter what, you can count on the reality to hit you a lot faster and harder than you had ever imagined.
By Deanna Perilloux8 years ago in Families
Childhood's End
“Stop screaming, can’t you see the man over there is dying?” After hearing those words, I could not help but wonder why they were here. Was their child sick? Was her husband stabbed? Someone in dreary need of help for sure. For just a second I was curious instead of grieving. Because it was my dad the one being rushed in a stretcher to the surgeon. It amazes me how I can look back at that moment and be so calm, because I can remember how it felt, and it felt like the entire world was crumbling. You know, ever had those kinds of dreams in which things are just too much, like your head inflates out of proportion and it never stops. That’s kind of how it felt. It’s all clear, but sort of like a dream, it felt like an eternity. But we went in to the Carlos Fonseca Emergency room at 5 PM, and it was all gone by 10 PM. Looking back, it’s even funny, well, if I ever had a moment in my life I could write about was when he gave me his ring, his wallet, his watch, and said, “Let’s go son.” In that moment, I knew it was going to be the last time I was going to be with my dad. The thing is, we had had a conversation at some point where he said to me, “When I’m gone, this ring will be yours.” Only he and I knew that. And at that point I did not want the ring; it was his to wear. But he didn’t take it back. So I started wrapping my head around him no longer being around. We got to a bed; I was sitting next to him, massaging his feet because his legs were cramping. Now in hindsight, I realize this was because his heart was no longer pumping blood to his extremities as it was supposed to. He was too uncomfortable to be lying in bed so we decided to sit him in a chair. I don’t remember his very last words to me. I remember our last day. In the last minutes of his light I think he could only complain about the pain. He never complained. I saw the life leave his body. I know the exact moment in which he died. When he asked me to give him my hand, and as I was reaching for it, his hand fell; I couldn’t make it. Then I saw him sit there with his mouth open, no longer saying anything, no longer looking at anything. That has to be the moment. Because what came after was torture. “Call a doctor, someone!” my mom screamed. “A doctor please,” she cried. This was the very first moment I can recall feeling truly helpless. Not able to make up a single word. Bawling my eyes out. I was literally frozen. I couldn’t move. Somehow we got out of that room. But the room I went in after, what I saw, no kid ever should ever see.
By Enoc Aguado8 years ago in Families
Postpartum Depression
It can happen to anyone, whether you're a first time mom or on your third child. It's not fun and it's one of the worst feelings a woman can go through—in my opinion, at least. Postpartum depression—for those of you who don't know what PPD is, let me tell you: the definition on Google—is "depression suffered by a mother following childbirth, typically arising from the combination of hormonal changes, psychological adjustment to motherhood, and fatigue." And for the most part, this is absolutely accurate. PPD is one of the worst all time lows I've ever experienced in my life. At least so far as I'm only 20. My name is Alicia and I'm here to tell you my story and what I went through, and let me tell you, if you are pregnant and reading this thinking, oh that will never happen to me, or it can't be that bad, you are wrong. I thought so before I had my daughter. I never thought that I would be a victim to PPD. I thought when I had my daughter I was going to be so lively as I just gave birth to my very first beautiful baby girl. But as all people, I was wrong. So wrong. Here is my story. And I hope this helps with whatever you're looking for.
By Alicia Hogue8 years ago in Families
Ways to De-Stress Your Toddler
Toddlers are just as prone to stress as adults, but the younger the child is, the less they are going to understand what is going on. Which will probably make them even more stressed out, and that is just the beginning of a very long day for everyone.
By Melanie Ma8 years ago in Families
