Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
The Lies That Keep Us Warm
I think I can nail it down to that last Christmas. It was 2010. I had graduated from high school a few months before and my dad had been the accompanist at a new church, Unity, for a while by then. My sisters and I had all grown up Catholic: baptisms, first communions, confirmations, the whole thing. My oldest sister, Elizabeth, had long since moved out and started her own family, raising her two boys with a distinct absence of religion (read: absence of my parents’ influence); and my middle sister, Victoria, had moved in with her boyfriend the year before but still came around to sing for my dad, much to my displeasure. I had never been the biggest fan of my sister’s voice; that would be my dad.
By Caitlyn Curry6 years ago in Families
Finding Warmth
It was a bitter cold that speared through each carefully donned article of clothing, sinking through layers of skin, fat, muscle, until it penetrated deeply to the bone, leaving behind a chill that would never be forgotten. Randall Poehler held himself carefully as he took up his usual position near the subway. His clothing, all threadbare and warn, was doing little to dampen the bone-cold chill that had set in weeks before. The streets of New York were certainly not a forgiving place; a place one down on hard times, such as Randall, might find themselves calling home. ‘Home’ had long since lost its true meaning when he had received his terminal diagnosis and his wife had left him; when his medical bills had eaten him out of house and home, when his daughter had stopped taking his calls and refused him access to his grandson. Randall Poehler was well acquainted with cold and unforgiving.
By Caitlyn Curry6 years ago in Families
Small Town Love
The year is 2003. I am a high school senior in a small town. I’m probably wearing LEI’s and white Airforce 1s. I am popular and involved in my high school. Life is good. Each year my school gives a “Senior Gift.” For one group it was a set of encyclopedias. Another graduating class donated beautiful flags from all over the world as décor for the school.
By Kendra Bingham6 years ago in Families
I Miss You Dad...
February 11th, 1991 is a special day for me. Besides being my birthday I also share it with my father, a Jr., making me the Third. I've never met anyone who shares the same name and the same birthday as their father so I most definitely feel unique and downright special in that regard. See the thing is, usually with special things at least part of them are in fact bittersweet. Such is life right? I have no memories of my father, a larger than life man I only know through a handful of pictures and second-hand stories. A real superhero to me...a man who could do no wrong. Three months to the day I came into this world, he left it on May 11th, 1991. I recently learned that he was never supposed to make it past December of 1990 but he held on strong to meet his child...a child he had no idea of the gender at the time but loved all the same. I was a surprise, a son with his name, born on his birthday. I can only hope that something so unique and special as this dulled the pain he must have been in on his hospital bed, even just for a minute.
By Ragnar Josephson6 years ago in Families
Operation= Shoebox??!
It all started years ago, somewhere between ages eleven and fifteen, my Mother started collecting shoe boxes. She has always been a little eclectic, maybe borderline hoarder, but with an inclination for organized hording. She has always had a knack for sale shopping, and would stock up on a lifetime supply of the most random things you could think of. Living room furniture because storage for canned goods, boxed of noodles and granola bars that she had doubled and tripled coupons on, in order to leave the store with them owing her money, instead of the other way around. With a family of six, who could blame her? She did the best she could, and her best kept us fed and secure.
By Emily Atchley6 years ago in Families
A Great Deed
During the pandemic of 2020, I was essencial. I work as a notary, making house calls to sign documents and shipping them off. My schedule fluctuates so I'm pretty flexible to get extra time with my sons. My two boys, 8yr and 15yr were both ripped from their schools and confined to the prison we once called home. From ending 1st and 7th grade, to summer of noone, and onto 2nd and 8th grade. I made it clear thathat’s t they were to stay home but after 9 months of home, they were willing to do anything to get out. As a mama, I had to stay strong and hold my ground. My fiance stayed home with the boys, unable to get work and lend an extra helping hand to raising the puppy we welcomed in June.
By Cynthia Hendrickson6 years ago in Families
Full Circle
When I was seventeen I was living on the streets, working at a deli in Mesa, Az. Some how I met a drug dealer from Utah, yeah fucking Utah, go figure. Through this drug dealer I met a man, a father and a husband, says him. I am not sure yet, since we just met, but what he says sounds great. This could be it, possibly a way out. What should I do, lie and say I know Spanish? Then without warning I heard myself say, "I can help you, I can be your nanny." So with that and just like that my life changed.
By Vonia Martin6 years ago in Families
