Tag: parenthood
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Without her
My mother died at sixty. My kids were six, four, and two. What came next, in order: a divorce, single motherhood. And about nine months after we lost her, my father moved away. There was still some family, technically. But asking the few who remained came at a cost, one way or another, in ways…
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What They Wanted Me to Do
By the time we got engaged, I was already trying to find my way out. I didn’t intend to go through with it. I could see him clearly enough by then, the controlling streak, the way the temperature of a room changed around him, and something in me knew. But we were already living together,…
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Anything with a Heartbeat
She was two, maybe three, when we had a litter of puppies from our labradors. There was a yard full of them, all ears and paws and tumbling. My middle girl was right down in the middle of it, immersed. She’d pick them up and carry them around. They were nearly too big for her;…
