He can’t decide whether to sink or swim, and so, he floats, mostly face-down, tilting his head every so often to taste the promise of air in his lungs. He’s been at it so long he’s almost convinced himself his dead man’s float is “living.”
She hurls tears on the days he won’t validate her feelings [...]

“It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.” -Anne Sexton
I remember the way he had to hunch himself over to hug me. Until the day he didn’t have to anymore. I was twelve. I remember that, too: suddenly, unexpectedly, being tall enough to reach him. Tall enough to see [...]

There are 2,996 victims to remember. In reflection and memory of the fifth anniversary of September 11, 2006, 2,996 stories will be told today. Please take some time to read more of them.This is the story of one Frank Bonomo, a dedicated New York Firefighter who left behind a legacy of laughter and selfless action.
Dear [...]

There is a dream I have when I feel like sleeping. I awake with dust on my hands, remnants of a night spent traipsing through endless aisles of moments and emotions long filed and left for dead. A room stone-cold, frozen with potential.
I run my fingers along shelves I stacked with boxes full of stories [...]

“They are passing, posthaste, the gliding years…The years are passing my dear, and presently no one will know what you and I know.” -Vladmir Nabokov

Dad,
It is eleven years now since the April we lost you to icy river water. Eleven years since [...]

Sometimes I swear I would have saved him.
Swear I could have rescued his breath from the icy depths into which he voluntarily dove, if only he had provided me the opportunity to play Fearless, to play Savior. I was twelve at the time, almost thirteen. I knew how to act older. I was a good [...]

I have days where I wonder if where I am is where I’m supposed to be. Days where it would seem I am out of place and out of sorts. Days that sometimes make me wonder about transitions, make me wonder if we as people must be patient enough to rest in the here and [...]

The events of these past three months have often and almost proudly made it difficult for me to breathe. Fresh scratches, still raw, still threatening to tear and become gaping holes in my being, cover skin I’m still learning to be comfortable in. Painful scratches that will ultimately require more than a squirt of Bactine [...]

Dad,
Ten years have passed since you last wrote me anything, but still I can vividly remember the way your handwriting looked on the page. Letters scrawled with conscious effort in all capitals. Your penmanship never reflective of the inner chaos so often present within your heart and mind, the slowly etched lines and curve hardly [...]

My mom deserves more on her birthday than a card, light pink roses, and a teary-eyed hug from her teary-eyed eldest daughter who just can’t seem to hold her proverbial poo together today, at least not as well as she was holding her proverbial poo together yesterday, and the day before that.
But in all honesty, [...]