You don’t have a father because you never existed. That is, you existed, but only as a fear. My parents missed the boat with the birds and bees. Did they think we already knew?
It’s June 2018, and I’m on a quest for sterilization. Information about sterilization is like sacred text. I need to be prepared to fight, insist, again and again, about why I need to do this.
You can bury doubt pretty deep. But at age 57, when I buy a $90 DNA test kit, I begin to unravel the truth about my own birth. A truth that my mother might’ve taken to her grave.
Stories for Choice is personal. It’s political. It’s for the people of Texas, and for the future of our entire nation. It is also my attempt at healing a lineage of inherited trauma. For [...]
Back when I get COVID -
I haven’t fully processed what I’m going through or how I’m feeling, but a few words come to mind - grim and dark and unkind and daunting.
I had given the gift of life many times before – in fact, 15 times before since 2007 in places like fire stations and shopping malls. But this time, it was different. This act of service changed [...]
The number 32 flashes on the screen of the black telephone sitting at the back corner of the desk. The green light flickers on and off, on and off.
“32, 32, 32 unread messages”, it [...]
A week before my father dies, I dream he wants me to take him to the river. There’s no river where he lives in downtown D.C. There’s a large block that we walk around, when he’s up for it, down [...]
Quarandream, Deferred When the pandemic began life stopped. I don’t think anyone could envision what was to come. I thought, I’ll spend two weeks at home and give my house the cleaning it’s [...]
Saturday morning Jon and I leave our hotel and walk the one block to the beach. We’re on our first trip since shelter-in-place began, a one-night sojourn to Santa Cruz for our anniversary. The [...]
