fact or fiction

Is it fact or merely fiction? Fact or Fiction explores the myths and beliefs we hold about our family dynamics, traditions, and if there's such thing as a 'perfect family.'

The Summer Hangover
For most of us, summer vacations are in the past. All that planning and longing to go places, and spending quality time with our families and friends have ended.
By Elizabeth Woodsabout a month ago in Families
My Daughter's Best Friend Has a Mother Who Cleans Offices
My daughter first mentioned that classmate on a Thursday evening. She was holding her rice bowl, lifted her eyes from the rim, and said, "Mum, she draws really beautifully." She stressed the word she , as if the name had been sitting in her mouth for days and she'd finally decided to let it out.
By Jinabout a month ago in Families
Give Me Back My Kidney or Pay Me $1.5 Million
I. The First Silence Outside the Operating Room In 2001, Dr. Richard Batista, a Long Island surgeon, cut his own body open to give his wife a kidney. The surgery went flawlessly. Post‑op tests came back normal. Four years later, his wife filed for divorce.
By Jinabout a month ago in Families
86 Thumbs Up
My dad sent me his first WeChat message last March. It wasn't text. It was a three‑second voice clip. I tapped it. All I heard was breathing, and after two seconds, he said: "Did you get it?" Then nothing.
By Jinabout a month ago in Families
The Number That Ate the Child: What We Actually Measure When We Measure “Giftedness”
The first time I sensed something was off about “identifying giftedness” was while designing a set of figural reasoning items for a gifted‑child screening. The task asked children to pick, from six options, “the most creative combination of shapes.” We had defined creativity for scoring purposes as the degree to which an option broke the implied symmetry of the item stem while maintaining a sense of visual balance. One child chose the answer we had keyed as the most creative. In the post‑test interview, I asked him why. He said, “Because it looks like my mom’s eyebrows when she’s angry.”
By Jin2 months ago in Families
Seven Minutes to Tie a Shoe, Six Days to Die: The Gene Therapy Trial That Took Everything
On the seventh morning, the numbers on the pulse oximeter were dropping. Six years old. Base editing. Adeno-associated viral vector. Her immune system did not recognize the shell of that vector, took it for an enemy, and attacked itself along with it. On the seventh day, she died of an immune response.
By Jin2 months ago in Families
Adam's Apple
In the silent hours of the day and the chorus minutes of the night, I have craved nothing more than to grow up. I have watched as men and women walked past me, and conversed with certainty, that their growth had reached its peak. I have learned their ways and christened their beliefs.
By Nighttime Storyteller2 months ago in Families
The Crown Between Them
The palace had never felt so quiet. For decades, it had been a place of ceremony, tradition, and carefully measured words. Every step mattered. Every glance carried meaning. But behind the polished doors and historic walls, it was still a home—one that had slowly grown divided.
By Behind the Curtain2 months ago in Families
The Tortoise on the Sixth Floor
My mother’s name is Margaret. She is ninety years old. She lives alone in a red-brick walk-up in Queens, on the sixth floor.
By Jin3 months ago in Families
I Married Him for His Security Clearance. He Gave Me a Smiley Face.
Margaret Chen set her coffee cup on the conference table. There was still half a mouthful left. Monday morning meeting. Hoffman, the campaign's pollster, was flipping through the latest numbers. His index finger jabbed at the approval curve on the whiteboard as he opened his mouth and said—
By Jin3 months ago in Families
The daughter who returned in white. AI-Generated.
The Daughter Who Returned in White In a quiet village wrapped in red earth and palm trees lived Odogwu, a man known for two things:
By afternine Films3 months ago in Families
I Pressed Play and Heard My Father's Voice Again
For fifteen years, I believed I would never hear my father's voice again. When he died, I was only sixteen. The loss came suddenly.
By Ethan Brooks3 months ago in Families