parents
The boundless love a parent has for their child is matched only by their capacity to embarrass them.
A broken heart, born from a Father’s loss
Staring at the phone in my hand, I couldn’t help the overwhelming emotion that filled me with… something? It tightened my lungs and blurred my vision and I couldn’t understand what label to describe this pain. Relief? For what specifically? Anger? Towards who anymore? Sadness? What was I grieving now?
By Dawn Constant 4 years ago in Families
Sittin on the dock of the bay
There are many things that make me think of my Father. Cuban cigars, hostess cupcakes, sugar cane & Otis Redding. I can’t hear (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay without immediately thinking of him humming along to the oldies station growing up. We spent a lot of time in the car together, road trips, errands, going to the movies and the mall nearly every weekend. There little things that remind me of my father interweave like a woven tapestry that makes up what I have left of my father...memories. Memories of those mall visits ending with a trip to Sweet Factory and why certain candy will always remind me of him, like Circus Peanuts and Tart & Tiny's. Sailboats on the horizon remind me of him, and sometimes I like to think he's not really gone but chasing the sunset in his boat, smoking a cigar as he steers.
By Josey Pickering4 years ago in Families
Dad v father
I'd have to say this is a tough story to tell. Not because of the emotions involved, it's the oddity of the reasoning. To be completely honest, it is only since being challenged to really examine my relationship with my dad that I even gave it any thought.
By Lilly Cooper4 years ago in Families
Salty Lung
I’m four and a half years old. I hold up 4 pudgy fingers to tell you so. I make sure to add the half. With voice. The half is important. It means I’m gaining on 5. It means I’ll be a sister soon. It means those 4 and 1/2 years will always be between myself and my brother. It means I’ll be his elder. It means I’ve been preparing to show him a world I’ve already scoped.
By Jen Parkhill “JP”4 years ago in Families
Digital Death of a Marriage
I died today. Had the life sucked clean out of me once and for all. It was a bittersweet passing. On one hand I was screaming in agony for the life I was leaving behind. And on the other hand I couldn’t surge forward fast enough for the new path ahead of me.
By J.C. Russe4 years ago in Families
A Little Girl's First Love
It's Wednesday, and a man is twenty six years old. Early in the evening, he escorts his wife to the maternity ward of the hospital, eager for his first child. It's a girl, small and sickly, taken away to be cared for. It's easy to speculate, as a prospective parent, how one would act or feel around their child. It's easy to make plans on how to parent if you haven't become one.
By Antiquity Anecdotes4 years ago in Families
Old School
Earl, my father, was born in 1938 and left this earth in 1988. Two months shy of his 50th birthday. In truth, I was afraid of him for most of my young life. My dad was old school. Kids were to be seen and not heard, kind of thing. He wasn’t afraid to give us a good smack if we deserved it, and trust me, my brother and I deserved it. On rare occasions, my older sister too.
By Clayton Pelton4 years ago in Families
Sad he understood
I was so sad that he had to understand. But when I looked into his eyes, I could sense the desertion he felt. I shivered when I walked into his living environment. His wife visited him, but she did not seem to understand. She would talk with all the other residents and fuss over him. Not as a man or a husband, but as a patient, someone who couldn't take care of themselves. She tried to befriend all the other residents and staff. Of course, there was the routine kiss goodbye. She seemed to give no thought to the environment that he was living in or his quality of life. She seemed oblivious to the conditions.
By Antoinette L Brey4 years ago in Families
