family

Family unites us; but it's also a challenge. All about fighting to stay together, and loving every moment of it.

Cancer has hit us.
I will never forget that night. It was the night before our son would turn 19 years old. August 22, 2017 at 10:30 pm. We are about ready to go pick up our son from his nighttime job. Yes we always use the bathroom before we go out away where.
By Terri Rosall5 years ago in Humans
The Perfect Patchwork
Turning sixty is not to be taken lightly, especially when it’s done in the middle of a pandemic. Unable to gather with friends and family, I was left with too much time to think about what this milestone meant. It’s an age that inspires you to think about what you’ll leave behind, and this thought was really brought home when my son told me I soon would be a grandmother! I decided it was time to create a family heirloom.
By Audrey Webb5 years ago in Humans
She Remembers
Her mind has been so focused on happier days. When things were beautiful, no matter how difficult. Everything they touched just seemed to flourish. Nice cars, well-dressed children, summer vacations to the beach. The cushy Cadillac Deville! It was a dream life.
By Laura Gray5 years ago in Humans
THE SIMPLE THINGS THAT MATTER
SWhen I was a kid, I remember that over the summer, we went to a public pool that had a separate diving pool, with all different levels of diving boards. The highest board seemed obscenely high and few people would ever attempt it. My dad was one of those people. We’d beg him to jump and usually by the end of our pool day, he’d make the trek up all those stairs and ladders, people looking up from their lounge chairs as they saw him ascending to the top. He was pretty heavy back then, but he had great diving form! His jump off the high board was always a proud “that’s my dad!” moment. He taught Mazzy to dive last year.
By varsha yadav 5 years ago in Humans
Sugar and Spice.
I’ve got this. How hard can it be, after all? It’s not like having my boss’s instructions to teach this little gremlin how to cook will in any way impact my job. But it really does, right? Sally is too busy to spend hours in the kitchen with her daughter, but she thinks that passing the job off to me, since I am getting paid anyway, will be a good idea. “It’s like working from home,” she told me yesterday. If only. One look at this surly kid makes me think twice. If her eyes could shoot mud on my newly purchased clothes, I’m sure they would. But, I’m getting paid, so this is my job for the day, even if working with a teen is ten times harder than my day job. I’ll start with the basics. “First, you mix all your dry ingredients.”
By Hannah Marie. 5 years ago in Humans
Dialing For Derelict Homes
In the mid-70’s as a kid I lived about 30 miles southeast of Seattle. In those days the little town I lived in was considered the boondocks or living in the sticks. There is some truth to that since we lived in the foothills of the Cascade Range and deer, cougar, and black bears showing up in your backyard did happen on occasion, not something you would see in downtown Seattle even back then. I could walk to most of my friend’s houses in the neighborhood through thick stands of Douglass Firs, Cedars, and Pine Trees.
By Steve B Howard5 years ago in Humans
Out of Kindness
The camping trip was their idea. It was always their idea. Ever since I can remember my life was their idea. The camping trip was their way to fix my suspension from school for drinking. Not so much drinking as it was guzzling whiskey till I passed out. Some rich looking Alumni couple heard me choking under the bleachers at the homecoming game. Monday I returned to the scene of the crime with parents in tow to receive the judgment. Punishment would come later.
By Steve B Howard5 years ago in Humans
Speak to me
As I walk through the fabric store, holding a single remnant of fabric, I whisper to it, “Speak to me. Tell me what you want to become.” Crazy as this may sound, the fabric never lets me down. I’ve come to realize that, in the beginning, my obsession with fabric was born out of necessity but has since grown into a life-long love affair. But let me start at the beginning.
By Penny Briese5 years ago in Humans
Letting Go
“Let it go. Let go of all this. Move forward now”. It’s easier said than done. It’s those complex memories that remain, seemingly omnipresent, at the fore of your brain. You know the ones: it takes a minute detail to trigger their presence, like a catalyst, and suddenly you’re there, in it, all over again, consumed by flashbacks. ‘What if’ thoughts cascade through you like rushing water. All the things you could have done differently, all the things you failed to say, rise to the surface and take up their unwelcome residence. Your shortcomings are enmeshed within that moment, and are eternally and inescapably preserved. It perfectly captures all that’s wrong with you. Naivety. Ignorance. Weakness.
By CMB5 years ago in Humans
To Mama Lionheart
My dearest Holly, From the moment that I met you, it was obvious that you danced to the beat of your own drum. You were the first friend that I made when I transferred to public school in 3rd grade, nearly two and a half decades ago. I was the new kid that everyone else made fun of, but not you. You were quick to introduce yourself, and from then on, we were inseparable for the next few years. From almost weekly sleepovers and summer camping trips with your parents and brother, to coming up with silly routines and re-enacting the Doublemint gum commercial, we did it all. We were truly sisters in all ways but blood.
By Jenna Thie5 years ago in Humans
Bang Up Beats and Backyard BBQ'S
My mind escapes me and travels back in time... Ah, yes, my younger years; fun times, and not so fun times. All a reminder of life before now; a life that intertwines with another tide.
By Jessica Taylor5 years ago in Humans
Jeremy Ranchers
“Jeremy Ranchers” My father was both a farmer and a test pilot, two passions reflecting the full range of wonder from the soil to the sky. His father had spent most of life working tenant farms in Ohio during the Great Depression, so Dad determined to share with his children both the rooted life of farming as well as the beauty of travel. My oldest brother, Jim, and I are separated in age by over 20 years. In spite of the age differences -- Jim’s birth signified the beginning of the baby boom and mine coincided with the closing Apollo missions -- our family of six was bound together by a love of the outdoors. The National Parks made it possible for my dad to share with us the full range of this marvelous country, not only for us but for the next generation.
By J W Knopf5 years ago in Humans