Generations
“More Pieces of Us”: A Quilt, Mental Illness, and Things Passed Down
A quilt made by my great-grandmother became a life preserver when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Orbits Around My Grandmother: On the Anxiety of Loneliness
“The phenomenon of lonely deaths for aging populations echoes in many pockets around the world.”
Fountain of Youth: Floating Between Being a Motherless Child and a Childless Mother
“I am unmoored, my place not easily defined, my presence not immediately understood.”
My Father’s Final Gift to Us? He Planned a Natural Burial
His bluegrass band at the gravesite? Check. No embalming? Check.
Lost Cause: On Estrangement and Chosen Family
Staying in contact with biological family no matter what they’ve done is a message beaten into us from every side.
Cursed: Baseball Lore and Saving My Daughter’s Life
“Does cursing beget being cursed? Had I brashly yielded a power unchecked, unaware of the consequences?”
My Mother’s Secret Garden
The students turned a gray patch of earth into their own tiny Eden, a secret oasis of their own.
When the Moon Met the Tiger: Homecoming and Loss in Myanmar
A homecoming could happen across many continents. It was not a physical place, but a family’s embrace.
What Isn’t Mine Is Mine: Accepting Intergenerational Trauma
We inherit trauma through the actions of family members and through the stories they share.
The Version We Remember: On the Truth and Fiction of Photography
We remember only a version of the story, and we tell only a fraction of that version. And sometimes, even that will fail us.