Life Stories.
Real Experience.
First-person narratives based on real human experiences. The moments that change us. The relationships that define us. The lessons we carry forward.
The Chair My Nephew Carried In
Nineteen days before Thanksgiving, my phone rang while I was scrubbing a casserole dish that didn’t need scrubbing anymore, just something to keep my hands... Read more
The School Clothes I Bought Every August
Every August since my divorce, on a night I never tell anyone about in advance, I have gone through the clearance racks at the discount... Read more
The Ring They Said I Pawned
“Ask Wanda where Mama’s ring went. She knows her way to a pawn counter.” My brother Vance said that at our mother’s funeral lunch, in... Read more
The Report Cards He Kept
Six weeks after my father’s funeral, I stood at the door of his workshop with the spare key in my hand, and I still could... Read more
The Recliner a Stranger Brought Back
“It was an ugly old thing nobody wants, Bonnie. You’ll thank me when the house shows better.” That is what my daughter-in-law Dana said to... Read more
The Ramp Our Street Rebuilt Together
The smell hit me before my eyes made sense of what they were seeing. Fresh-cut cedar, sharp and clean, drifting off the porch light into... Read more
The Quilts She Donated From My Hospital Bed
Four dollars is what a thrift store paid out in trade credit for my mother’s wedding quilt, the one my daughter-in-law Shaylene decided was clutter... Read more
The Potluck They Tried To Move
The notice went up on the clubhouse corkboard on a Tuesday, pinned dead center where the old sign-up sheet used to hang, and it took... Read more
The Chairs She Took From My Daughter
Eleven days after my daughter finished her last round of chemotherapy, all she wanted in the whole world was one ordinary day beside a swimming... Read more
The Caregiver Who Cut His Medication
At 2:14 in the afternoon on the Tuesday I came home from eleven days at my sister’s bedside in Wichita, I walked into my own... Read more
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