LEGACY

I don’t suppose I’ve achieved enough success in my life yet to consider mine a rags to riches story, but I can certainly say I’ve come a long way from having been a child ward of the state.  Those days were an almost forgotten other world from here, way back around that bygone era when DCFS destroyed the only family I’d ever known by then ( Read more... )

THE LONG ROAD

My husband and I have been losing sleep lately, trying to convince our boy he’s not a vampire.  It’s not just the biting, and the refusing to eat people food, though, certainly those are problems worth addressing.  But how do you make a 3-yr-old understand abstract concepts like, we are diurnal creatures, child - humans are designed ( Read more... )

MISFITS

I’m not in the habit of going around saying I have “daddy issues,” though, while I haven’t looked into any sort of official diagnosis, I will admit a professional who focuses on such things might be willing to apply a more formal variation on the term to describe some of my impulsively developed coping mechanisms as a result of learning ( Read more... )

DEPARTURE

There’ve been so many problems in my life that could have been solved by walking. So many cases where it was the right thing to do.  And certainly more situations than I care to admit to about which at times since I’ve wished I’d done it sooner.  But it was always a hard decision to be faced with, and never the easiest option available ( Read more... )

POTENTIAL

My mother used to tell a story about the circumstance of her life before I was born, and how I came to be.  She told a lot of stories.  Mother didn’t exactly have a close personal relationship with the truth.  I would take this one with a grain of salt, just like I did with so many others, but stories have a knack for seeping into your ( Read more... )

When The Night Closes In

MOTHER is lying in a hospital bed in Tarpon Springs, Florida, severely deformed, alone and dying; too slow for the pain she’s experiencing, too fast for the life she’s lived.  She’s frightened, and not at all ready, and there’s not a thing in the world I can do to help her.

I want to be able to do something more for her, I ( Read more... )

The Breaking Point

My father used to be fond of telling a tale about me as a toddler, which has stuck with me into adulthood, and gives some validity to the way I relate to the world and move within it even to this day.

I haven’t retained a lot of memories over the years about the man who contributed to my conception, but this story struck a chord ( Read more... )

C’est La Vie

When my cell rang last Monday night, I was a little surprised at the display on the caller ID, because it wasn’t my birthday.   It wasn’t Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, or even Mother’s Day.  I was just in the process of making dinner, same as any other random weekday evening, as far as I knew.

I listened, mostly.  Generally, that’s ( Read more... )

An S for My Birthday

One of the most memorable gifts I ever received came in the form of a single letter. And I don’t mean the type you pen to your pal overseas.

For my 21st birthday, my Mother gave me an “s.”

Now, this was a very special “s”...not the kind you’d expect to see peddled by some Lefty-like huckster out pushing characters on any ( Read more... )