There are five kids in my family. I am the middle child. My older brother Jack has autism. All my life I waited for a chance to stand up for Jack, to fight for him. It wasn’t until he moved out, I realized I never needed to protect him. Instead, I will always learn from […]
I write a lot about marriage. I write about when our voices grow loud and jagged. I write about what it may feel like to be a Forever Father. I write about how I try to notice the small gestures that make life lovely. This week, join us for an exclusive interview and Q&A with […]
I have the son who couldn’t sit still for circle time. I have the son who whirled around the doctor’s office, all moving limbs and screeching sound. I have the son with autism. I have the son who shrieked and clawed his way through puberty. I have the son who bit the teacher. He left […]
The first thing she notices are the bushes. They reach over the sidewalk, forming an arch of green. Ducking beneath them, she thinks of her mother, reduced to ashes in a box. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Yet here, at this house, she is everywhere. Every corner hosts a memory. Tomatoes, plump and red […]
There is a tinge of autism in the air. We load the last of your bags in the car. I look to the sky. I think of newborns wrapped in blue. I think of spring. I think of sandcastles. I read somewhere that it’s easy to trap bees in a jar. This is because they […]
I. We are hands clasped on a sunlit campus, autumn’s confetti beneath our feet. We are possibility. II. The swish of white. A dash of black tie. Silhouettes before the priest, posed family photos, all stiff smiles and jangled nerves. Who will we be? What have we done? III. This first pregnancy. It’s like watching […]
Amongst the five pear trees, a single bird stirs. From where I sit on the front porch, I feel his eyes upon me. Perhaps I am imagining it. Inside the house, a notebook sits on the counter. It’s opened to a blank page. For the last four weeks, you’ve been at a summer program. Now, […]
It’s a chilly afternoon in November. The mall is quiet. A few people starting their holiday shopping. Two women walk into a store. It’s the kind that sells decorations for the home. Animals carved from wood, tapestries woven from silky strands. Although they don’t look alike, you can tell they are related. Mother, daughter. The […]
I wake before the sun. I sit up in bed. I notice the half-light and lay back on the pillow. My husband Joe shifts beside me and sighs in his sleep. I wonder what he’s thinking, if he’s dreaming. I look over at him. His face is relaxed. His goatee is more silver than dark. […]
The room is quiet now. The lights are low. You are asleep, a white blanket pulled up close, your hands limp at your sides. A few hours earlier, the doctor ticked off all the betrayals of your body while a machine pumped air through your lungs. Advanced COPD. Pulmonary embolism. Heart failure. Now, the air […]