Published in Invisible Illness·3 days agoMember-onlyLook for the DiscrepanciesAn open letter to my grown children — Before you open the enclosed letter, please note that it describes something called alienation. This is a common abuse tactic, often employed by disgruntled parents, one against the other. Here’s a good article about it. But in my case, my mother used it as well — joining forces with Ex…Healing From Trauma10 min readHealing From Trauma10 min read
Published in Invisible Illness·Mar 15Member-onlyThe Red Shirt ExperienceGrief triggers that bring unexpected joy to mourning — When I first heard that my son had died, I googled his name to look for any information I could find. Since I’ve severed contact with my family (they probably think I’m dead anyway), I knew I couldn’t ask them for it. So, I located the GoFundMe page my daughter-in-law…Healing8 min readHealing8 min read
Published in Invisible Illness·Mar 5Member-onlyCornelius Comes to the RescueI wish he’d been there when my son needed him — When I left Ex Number Two, I moved into a safe house — a nice group home where women of all ages are protected from the reasons that put them there. Most residents were young mothers with little children. At the time I lived there, I was the only grandmother…Mental Health7 min readMental Health7 min read
Published in Invisible Illness·Feb 23Member-onlyMy Wacky Dreams Served a PurposeBut my son still died, so what good did they do? — When I was a young teenager listening to the Osmonds, the Partridge Family, and Three Dog Night on my transistor radio, I gleefully plunged into a world of pure imagination. …Mental Health7 min readMental Health7 min read
Published in Invisible Illness·Feb 11Member-onlyMy Son’s Last Public CommunicationA mother’s analysis — Below, you’ll see the last article my son wrote, published on LinkedIn the day before he died. And here, I openly admit to copy/pasting something from a dead man’s blog. I hope that can’t be called plagiarism. I have attributed the work to him. …Mental Illness10 min readMental Illness10 min read
Published in Invisible Illness·Jan 24Member-onlyGoodbye, My SonComing to terms with death by mental illness — Before we proceed, I need to warn you. My son died by suicide, and this article is a mother’s initial attempts to deal with it. This piece has been hard to write, and I really don’t want to face the subject directly. Nor am I too keen on telling the…Mental Illness10 min readMental Illness10 min read
Dec 29, 2022Member-onlyDolls for GrandchildrenOne of the most precious gifts I’ve ever received Disclaimer: My current day job is in the kitchen of a rest home. HIPPA laws (protecting a patient’s right to privacy) prevail there, so the residents described in this story have been fictionalized. However, I really did make a couple of…Elder Care7 min readElder Care7 min read
Nov 3, 2022Member-onlyWhen Potatoes Won’t CookWarning: Take home only memories from Hawaii. I went to high school in Hawaii. My father was in the Navy, and we lived on a base that has been closed down for at least thirty years now. When we first got there, we did a lot of touristy stuff —…Hawaii6 min readHawaii6 min read
Oct 21, 2022Member-onlyReflections on My All-Time Favorite MovieA few unconsidered realities of time travel My all-time favorite movie is Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. It’s a time-travel love story, filmed at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, and released on 3 October 1980. Now, every year a group of fans gets together…Time Travel7 min readTime Travel7 min read
Jul 15, 2022Member-onlyStalled. Again.A different take on procrastination I’ve told you about a few of my creative endeavors. I’ve begun the process of sending my middle grade chapter book, Taking Care of Susie, to agents. I never heard back from the latest submission. But I have yet to click the “send” button to…Procrastination5 min readProcrastination5 min read