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The Taste of Love
The weight of her pockets pulled at her shorts. The waistband on one side slid lower and lower as she walked. She hitched her thumbs into the belt loops and pulled her shorts up for what felt like the hundredth time since leaving home. They were frayed along the edges, like most of her other belongings they had once belonged to someone else.
By E. W. Lynn5 years ago in Families
A Taste of Heaven
"Man, cancer sucks." Chase Hendrix murmured to himself under his breath as he looked at himself in the mirror. He rubbed his white bald head with his right hand from back to front and slowly down his face. He studied himself closely as his left hand shakenly balanced his frail body on the walker.
By Chayil Champion5 years ago in Families
Extra Love
Nanna’s recipe called for extra love. Her hands were always dry and cracked from the sun, splintered from working the land, and covered in flour or spices from her kitchen. Her garden was an adventure filled wonderland to her kids, to her, it was what she needed to get by. There was always something to be done at Nanna’s house, but each mundane chore became magical as the home and land flourished beneath her fingers - strong, delicate, dedicated.
By Alycia Bourne5 years ago in Families
The Final Flight
I first thought it was a mausoleum, but it’s called a columbarium. There are niches within these miniature buildings that hold the ashes of loved ones. Some of them are large buildings with stained glass windows and hundreds of niches, and some are small stand-alones dotting the cemetery landscape. Both my parents were interred in one of these on August 4th at Floral Memory Gardens in Dade City after my mother passed away in July, seven years after my father.
By Barb Dukeman5 years ago in Families
Sorrow to Hope
For the first time in several decades, the door of the old barn was straining under the force of someone trying to push it open. A low groan was uttered in protest. The man continued to push. The barn continued to object. The power struggle lasted for quite a while before the door gave way slowly. Light swarmed into the open spaces of the interior, filling all it touched with warmth. Dust and small critters panicked, darting here and there as they looked for a new place to be left in peace.
By Jerene Buckles5 years ago in Families
Sacrifice
The Greatest Mother in the World "My mother is the greatest mother in the world!" Everyone who loves their mother says it without hesitation, and every one of them is right. To the child who looks to her for guidance, protection, and love, a mother is the whole world. God designed that bond to begin before we ever draw a breath; the psalmist says He knit us together in our mother's womb. The bond formed by making life, giving life, and then nourishing that life is priceless. A mother sees her own eyes, smile, and laugh in her son or daughter, little reflections she never noticed in herself until she saw them in her child. She guides, because she wants her child to have the best of everything and to grow up in love and happiness. She protects, because this child is her world given form, with her stamp on every feature. And she loves with a love she never knew she had, a love that will sacrifice everything so her child can be happy. A mother who gives up her time, her health, and her money to build a better life for her children is truly an angel without wings. So, as cliché as it sounds: my mother is the greatest mother in the world, to me.
By Dr. George Shannon Ferguson5 years ago in Families
