Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Prom Night 454NEM3QLWEPBAHLeE78plQ4NvRRF2LMx9
It is Lily’s self-assigned duty to wake up before her husband each morning. Admittedly there is no romance left in their relationship so I’ve learned not to think anything kind of it. There is no breakfast to follow or good morning to be had. Every drop of kindness has been drained from their relationship. Disappearing with it is all of the attention Lily might have received from others at earlier stages of her life.
By joyce keokham3 years ago in Families
Another Office
Tick, tock, tick, tock. The clock on the wall of the waiting room makes a chiming sound every second, driving me crazy. As I stare at the black second hand I wonder if the people who work here grow tired of hearing it all the time. I’m already tired of listening to it and I’ve only been sitting here for 15 minutes. I can only see the brown hair on the very top of the receptionist’s head because the counter blocks most of my view but she is sitting right below the clock. I don’t know how she stands sitting there forty hours a week with that chiming noise going off every second.
By Lizzy McMahon3 years ago in Families
Home
Sasha groaned as she gingerly lifted her head out of the awkward position she had fallen asleep in. She gently peeled her hand from the page it was pressed into, careful not to damage her grandfather’s delicate old journal. It was one of several small black notebooks she had found stacked in a corner of his library after his funeral. Sasha still couldn’t believe he was dead. It felt like the universe had chosen to twist the knife one last time, just for fun. Her mom, dad, and two sisters had been gone for ten years now, and her grandfather had been the only family she had left. Ironically, she’d only met him after she’d lost the rest of her family.
By Colleen Williams3 years ago in Families
Studio Audience
As they lower your mother into the ground your attention is caught by something else. You shouldn’t allow this to happen. Your mother, barely elderly has died suddenly in a way that still leaves you with questions. But you are drawn to the sight of your wife at the corner of your eye. She stands beside you in a flowing gray dress that is almost nearly white. You watch her toss a rose onto your mother’s coffin with the same grace she does everything else. You can picture her pushing a metal cart down the aisles of the local grocery store wearing that same dress. You wonder why of all things she chose to wear it. Finally, you stop wondering only to begin fixating. On her, the dress, the open-toed heels, the fact that she despised your mother—the sharp manicured nails that pinch your palm when she reaches for your hand. You take her hand because you don’t want to offend her. While you were beside yourself with grief, your wife, who scares you sometimes, organized your mother’s funeral in a heartbeat.
By Jesula Damas3 years ago in Families
Sacrifice of a mother
I feel like a ticking time bomb. This is what it really looks like having a high-risk, possibly life-threatening pregnancy in the middle of Covid-19 pandemic. I sit and wait for the maternal fetal specialist to call me in for testing and consultation. I have been waiting for over a month now. I put a smile on my face for my family so they can forget about the hardships during the holiday season. I smiled and opened gifts with them. We even opened a gift for Baby M, but during all of this all I could think of “what if we don’t make it”? The sad reality is our baby might not be here next year to open gifts. I might not be the same person next year. I guess I am a bit of a pessimist, because I always look at the worst possible outcomes. I want to prepare myself for what could happen, while still trusting the medical system: doctors and nurses. I know they will do their best to help us.
By Melinda A. Komuves3 years ago in Families
Just the Beginning
Gloria was finally going home after the end of her second job. From 9am-5pm, she was a secretary at a small local law firm and from 10pm-12am, she cleaned offices at a large downtown building. Though tough, the jobs enabled her to provide for the people she loved the most in the world – her three teenage sons.
By Elizabeth Schneider 3 years ago in Families
A Strange Day
Look in the box, you have to do it eventually, it’s weighing you down hun…closure is so important. All of this I heard every day from my mom, until she finally gave up getting me to open this box up. As well she should have. I don’t need to look in the box and see the fragments of the past from a sorry useless brother who never cared about our family. He left us as soon as he could and I don’t need that reminder. So I shoved the box in the farthest corner of my closet and that was that. And I’m sure she never looked either, she’s not that snoopy kind of mom. She is all go with the flow and ‘if you do it..do it here safely’, honestly I sometimes forget I’m not her mother.
By Taylor McElroy3 years ago in Families
Grandma Tilley
Meg knelt in front of the steamer trunk, its worn brown leather felt smooth under her hands and hinted at the secrets that lay within. The brass fittings and name plate gleamed in the early morning light declaring that it belonged to Margaret Tilley, her grandmother whose namesake she bore. Grandma had died a few weeks ago and now her children were sorting through her things. Everyone wanted Meg out of the way, so they suggested she take a look in the attic and see what she could find up there.
By Robin Trent3 years ago in Families
Luck's Smile
Luck’s Smile Busara kneeled as she cleansed her face with the ice-cold water from the creek. She felt it rinse the dust from her cheeks and forehead as it dribbled down her chin. The evening air began to chill as the sun set, it was around six o'clock in Tanzania. Busara was always amazed that the horizon she passed every day can look so different. She had just finished a sixteen-hour shift at the tanzanite mines and she still had a long walk ahead of her. Busara hadn’t found anything in the mine that day, as usual. She has been working in the mines since she was twelve. When she started, she was frightened of the long walk to and from the mines; but as time moved on, she got accustomed to it. She walked dragging her feet behind her, stopping at the water pump to bring back clean water. People had forgotten about that water pump, during a drought it started to get people sick even when they boiled the water. The pump always seemed to have an overpowering smell of rotten eggs. The government had built a new pump closer to the village and people soon forgot about the old pump. One morning, Busara walked past the old pump on her way to work. She was so thirsty that she decided to try to drink from it, aware of how unsafe her choice was, she had noticed on her travels that ever since the new well had been built the smell from the old well had begun to disappear. The day passed by uneventfully, and when she told her family in the evening, her father said not to tell anyone. The main water pump of the village was always crowded and dirty, so the family agreed to keep it a secret. From that day on she got water from it every day. She would leave a bucket beside the pump every morning and every evening she would bring it back full.
By Niki Newport3 years ago in Families