01. Anniversary

My mother died two years ago today.

Her death was sudden yet unsurprising. She was only seventy, but her body and spirit were so very weary. Weary of weight and pain and medicine and needles and sugar counts. And of the countless limitations that ruled her: limitations on what she could eat, how far she could walk, how long she could sit in a car, on an airplane, in a chair, in a bed.

By the end, there was no comfortable place for her. Her obesity made even stillness excruciating. Read more →

02. Change Schmange

I hate change. Hate it.

Part of the problem is that I’m wildly indecisive and a devout pessimist. I take Murphy’s Law seriously: What can go wrong, must go wrong.

So, while some people see change as an opportunity for growth and good fortune, I see it as potential disaster waiting to ambush me. Read more →

03. Potty Mouth

I was in third grade when I uttered my first curse word.

I told myself I did it by accident, but really it was in the name of love. Read more →

04. Faker

When my grandmother died, I hadn’t spoken to her in over a decade. My mother was her least-favorite child, which made me and my twin sister her least favorite grandchildren. (My younger brother she could forgive for being my mother’s child since he’s a boy.)

She died recently, less than a year after my mother. We joked that she couldn’t even give my mom a full year’s peace in whatever afterlife there might be. Read more →