What Death Means to Love and What Love Means to Death By Krista Stevens Highlight “But perhaps it’s neither here nor there how we think about death. Perhaps the work that must be done is in how we think about life.”
“Over a Glass of Wine and a Pint on a Quiet Friday Night” By Krista Stevens Highlight “Impending parenthood makes you reconsider the context of your own upbringing, and puts the work your parents did into a new light.”
Loving Molly, and Mourning Her: A Husband’s Extraordinary Essay By Seyward Darby Highlight Blake Butler writes movingly about his late wife, poet Molly Brodak.
‘Joe Biden Reeks of Decency’ By Krista Stevens Highlight “Joey is going to be President someday. He was made to be in the White House. There is no one else who can lead the country. Just you wait and see.”
‘These Were His Mountains, After All’: Remembering One’s Father While Cycling in the Swiss Alps By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight James Jung thought he rode the winding narrow roads of the Alps to memorialize his dad. He was wrong.
‘Who’s Going to Take Care of Me?’: When the Coronavirus Takes Both Parents By Cheri Lucas Rowlands Highlight In the wake of their parents’ deaths, three siblings struggle to get through the day-to-day.
The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Lockets By Katy Kelleher Feature Lockets simultaneously display and hide. But does squirreling our love and grief away in a piece of jewelry keep the memories and emotions present for us, or minimize them?
Lloyd’s Mattress By Scott Korb Feature Scott Korb contemplates disgust — his own, yours — at the kind of magical thinking that promises (with fingers crossed) to protect us from all the causes of dying.
Seeding a Dark World with New Life By Sara B. Franklin Feature As she’s done before, Sara B. Franklin greets the specter of death by defiantly planting a life-sustaining vegetable garden.
Closure in Service of Grief: the Septuagenarian Couple Who Locate Bodies Under Water By Krista Stevens Highlight “What Gene and Sandy offer is not the hope of rescue, but the solace of finality. They have spent years crisscrossing North America in the service of grief.”
At Mrs. Balbir’s By Jillian Dunham Feature Jillian Dunham traveled thousands of miles from home to get away from her grief. It found her anyway, in a stranger’s Bangkok apartment.
Searching Sephora for an Antidote to Aging — and Grief By Abby Mims Feature Five years after her mother’s death, while still grieving and suddenly middle-aged, Abby Mims turns to beauty products to cure what ails her.
Elizabeth Wurtzel Made it Okay to Write ‘Ouch’ By Sari Botton Highlight Today’s memoirists and personal essay writers owe a debt of gratitude to the Prozac Nation author for rewriting an inhibiting rule.
A Beloved Art Critic Sings His Swan Song By Sari Botton Highlight “Drink was destroying my life. Tobacco only shortens it, with the best parts over anyway.”
The Christmas Tape By Wendy McClure Feature Wendy McClure recounts how an old audio tape of holiday music becomes a record of family history, unspoken rituals, and grief.
A Woman’s Work: Becoming a Home of One’s Own By Carolita Johnson Feature Carolita Johnson considers what it takes to recover from grief, build strength for the future, and become one’s own center of gravity again.
Why I Wanted To Finish My Father’s Life’s Work By Karen Brown Feature Karen Brown recalls the pain and joy of fulfilling a deathbed promise.
The Misidentification of Raheme Malik Perry By Krista Stevens Highlight When a hospice takes a man off life support in a case of mistaken identity, who is responsible?
A Woman’s Work: Till Death Do Us Part By Carolita Johnson Feature Carolita Johnson considers the emotional and physical labor required of women as their loved ones die.
Old Dudes On Skateboards By Aaron Gilbreath Feature The death of his life-long skateboarding friend prompts Aaron Gilbreath to get back on his board — at 44, with his toddler daughter in tow.
The Girl I Didn’t Save By Longreads Feature Cameron Dezen Hammon reflects on her frustrations as a Christian music minister for the terminally ill, unable to heal a cancer patient she cared for, and struggling to be compassionate at her belligerent Jewish father’s bedside.
I Will Outlive My Cat: A Reading List on Pet Death By Alison Fishburn Reading List Alison Fishburn shares seven longreads on how humans experience the death of their pets.
How to Predict the Unpredictable By Katie Gutierrez Feature After the death of her dog, Katie Gutierrez grapples with the ripple effects of her decisions — and how to live with uncertainty as a mother.
Keeping My Promise to Popo By Anne Liu Kellor Feature As Anne Liu Kellor says goodbye to her Chinese grandmother in the hospital, she taps into buried memories and family trauma.
Conversations with My Loveliest By Melissa Berman Feature Melissa Berman recalls what was said, and not said, between her and her beloved aunt as they approached her final year.
Woodstock: My Queer Love Story By Kate Walter Feature Kate Walter went to Woodstock in 1969 with her boyfriend. She went back in 1994 with her girlfriend. She’s not going back again.
The Burdens We Carry By Amy Scheiner Feature Amy Scheiner reflects on her mother’s sudden death and what it means to be a woman in a world that is set up to bury them.
Father’s Little Helper By Scott Korb Feature While under the influence of Valium, Scott Korb reflects on all the fathers he could have been and the father he has become.
Shovel, Knife, Story, Ax By Erika Howsare Feature When you live with animals, you collect killing stories.
The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning By rachelvoronacote Feature Nowadays, we live online, and so we grieve here too. But there are limits to the comfort digital mourning can provide.
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