He and my mom never married, but they were together for 35 years, and he was a welcome sober soul at boozy family gatherings. At one point, he had to stop drinking to save his liver, and for a while, he went to meetings. We had sobriety in common until he started to drink socially …
I grew up in a world of Dichotomy, a world of beer cans and Bibles, I was expected to be nice to others, but treated not so nice in our home by my alcoholic father. I recited prayers but felt panicked. To me this was normal. When I was somewhere around thirteen years old, one …
My first calls for help weren’t loud enough – given the deserted condo grounds three stories below. No tracks in the snow. Not even a bird or squirrel in the oak trees outside the screen. The sun was low, showing streaks on the sliding glass door that had closed with a solid, unmistakable click. I …
Frost lined the edges of the porch windows one morning in February, 1996. My daughter had left for school. As I put milk back in the refrigerator, I noticed ice had built up on the coils again. The refrigerator was an older model and needed to be defrosted the old-fashioned way. I’d just done that …
Grandpa was a difficult man. He was kind and loving on his own terms, but not at all forbearant with people, places, and things that he did not understand. My wife and her family didn’t regard him as odd in the least—well, that’s not true. They had simply grown accustomed to his idiosyncrasies and each …
On July 25, it will be two years since I’ve kissed an old, old boyfriend. He is a modern man, with a hyphenated last name. His first name is Johnny and his last name is Walker-Red. I chose my sponsor because she was beautiful, poised, brilliant, a mother (a prerequisite as I have three children)and, …
