Looking back, I can not believe I reached out to her in the first place. By the age of 60, I had retired from my career, moved from Canada’s pleasant intimacy to the Dominican Republic, terminated most of my obligations to my adult children, and … Read More

In the rehearsal room at a Limited Too in Miami, I told my mother, You’re hurting me. She sausaged my body into a T-shirt with American flag in the largest size they sold. In third grade, I searched their catalog for hours and longed not … Read More

I always dreamed of backpacking in Europe as a child. My favorite magazine was National Geographic, which I would drive to the mailbox to pick up before Dad did so I could read it from end to end. I saved my money and had enough … Read More

I put on red lipstick in the hotel bathroom before slipping out of my bandage dress. I remember thinking it would be a good idea to wash my sleeping pill down with champagne if I did not feel like getting up later. The last thing … Read More

“I love you,” Doug said to me. “I love you too,” I replied, before pressing the red hang-up buttons on our iPhones at the end of our weekly calls. My wife gave me a funny look, which she did weekly, in the loving way we … Read More

It’s almost a year ago and I still have not picked up his ashes. When they hand me the dustbox that was my little brother, it will be real. At the moment, it’s more than I can stand. Most of his life, Lee struggled. When … Read More

I started my last assignment. “American politics has become more and more polarizing …” Bip. Oxygen levels: 91%. Bip. Oxygen content: 90%. I sat in my room trying to get engaged in schoolwork and finish the semester while my dad next door had a hard … Read More

When I first found out at the age of 19 that I was adopted, my life became a telenovela. I was no longer my parents’ perfect little Italian daughter, but a Colombian adopted, raised to know nothing about her birth culture. All I knew was … Read More

In India, where I live, this means that if a girl is not married at the age of 30, there is something wrong with her because she is long past her married age. Another common regressive belief here is that divorce is shameful, especially for … Read More