Henry was a man of routine. Every morning without fail, he would get up without hitting snooze once; something he prided himself on. He would brush his teeth, get dressed, and then go prepare himself a cup of coffee. Once it was ready, he would read the morning newspaper front to back while drinking his coffee. Once he read the paper, he would get ( Read more... )

My mother told me I could be anything in the world; except a teacher. She told me I didn't have enough patience to ever be a teacher ( Read more... )

"Hillary, how would you like to make $10,000?" My father asked me immediately as soon as I answered the phone ( Read more... )

She would rather be anywhere but here right now. She truly meant anywhere. Hell, she'd rather be having her wisdom teeth extracted again if that meant Adam was by her side ( Read more... )

"Hillary, it'll be for three months. I promise." My father swore to me as he tucked me into my new bed and bedroom, the one I was to share now with my mom. My mother leaned over me to give me a kiss good night, her face pinched with worry. My aunt, my mother's sister, stood off to the corner, glaring at this display of love. "We'll be together ( Read more... )

The storm alert sound on his phone got his attention just as he heard the loud boom of thunder. The meteorologists had been talking all day about how this would be the "storm of the century" but he didn't put much stock into weather forecasting; they always got the weather report wrong anyways so what was the point of looking at weather reports?   ( Read more... )

My family is not made of angelic beings but despite their faults, they have (mostly) beautiful (good intentioned?) hearts ( Read more... )

When Rachel won a first class, all expenses paid trip to Paris for 10 days, she thought she had died and gone to heaven. She had always dreamed of going to Paris and seeing the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe. She pictured herself walking hand in hand with a handsome Parisian who fell in love at first sight with her at a little French ( Read more... )

I fought dementia for my mother's life ( Read more... )

He pulled me aside during recess, behind the gigantic tree stump we used to love to sit on at recess. "You wanted to know this, right ( Read more... )