My mother passed away July 4, 2019 after a progressive decline from dementia. The only things I remember that first year was a global pandemic kept me home allowing me to sob in my pajamas and uncork a bottle of rosé at 5:01 pm. Bill’s mother passed several months before…

So now the best I could do for this amazing young man, a survivor of gun violence, that the best I could do on this rainy, winter Friday night was a cot at the dirtiest shelter in DC. After 6 months in the Ivy league teaching hospital, I wheeled him…

It was on a Friday at 3 pm and Louis was getting discharged from the hospital after 5 months. His doctor Tia become the kind of confident that emailed, text, and called anytime. Day. Night. After I took my sleep meds. Before I took my psych meds in the morning. …

Easter we visit my mother lovingly. red marble with black veins. her name so strongly presented in bold black letters at the very top of the mausoleum. my father and i do the sign of the cross. in the name of father. the son. the holy spirit. my mother’s crypt…

It’s going to be okay, you tell me. how would you understand? only women know. what it is like to have a look. a word. a touch. unwanted at that. not being able to escape. when my mother shared, she desired to be a nun, at age 52 i finally…

This is the not the first time my hair soaked up the smell of death. When Liz overdosed and died i went into her apartment to salvage anything for her 19-year-old son. She spent the $8k she saved for his college semester in 2 months over the summer. When i…

My mother was fierce. At 5 feet and 1 inch she commanded a room with her bright smile. When it was time for serious stuff to happen you knew that too. She was a highly trained designer and seamstress, making everything from wedding dresses to dress suits. …

i have given the response of emotionally complicated to various people about my recent 2-week trip to Italy with my family. i told my friend at work and she spends so much time with me she was like, “oh, i know how that goes. …

my father and his sister, my zia, saw each other after 24 years. they lingered around each other. my father gingerly guiding her small slightly bent frame around the christmas day dinner table that was leaning precariously to the right. my father towereing a foot above her. when she saw…