The phone rang in our motel room around 9 a.m., startling us all. In 1987, motel room phones only rang if it was a wake-up call or a noise complaint. Unfortunately, it was neither. My mom answered the phone, sitting sideways on the bed next to the nightstand. She talked…
My grandparents raised their family in a tiny, brick bungalow on the west side of Milwaukee. The size of the house was inversely proportionate to the size of their family, something that by today’s standards seems to not only defy the laws of comfort, but of logic as well. Yet,…
Photo Credit: Angie McMonigal Photography “Some of us have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad.” — “As Good As It Gets” “Life is hard sometimes, yea?” my friend wrote in a text last week. “Very hard,” I wrote back. We…
“And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.” — Raymond Carver, A New Path to the Waterfall I’m a little scared to write today, afraid of what might come…
Though the weather here in the Midwest indicates otherwise, we are firmly entrenched in Spring. It is now mid-May. Or maybe even late-May depending on your definition. How is that possible? Wasn’t I just writing 2014 on my checks? Wasn’t there just snow on the ground? And weren’t we all…
When I was nine years old, my grandpa was in a plane crash. While this event has been woven into the fabric of our family’s history for the past 28 years, it wasn’t until recently that my understanding, perspective, and even questions about the event really took shape. I’m thrilled to…