Peering into the mirror of her mother, Marcia Aldrich wonders whether she too is sentenced to dementia.
Fine Lines
Keeping My Promise to Popo
As Anne Liu Kellor says goodbye to her Chinese grandmother in the hospital, she taps into buried memories and family trauma.
What’s Happening to My Body?
Devorah Heitner reflects on the ways she is reclaiming her relationship to her own body while grappling with the legacy of her mother’s poor body image and early death.
Conversations with My Loveliest
Melissa Berman recalls what was said, and not said, between her and her beloved aunt as they approached her final year.
Whole 60
The Laura Lippman plan requires that you eat whatever you want whenever you want to eat it, and declare yourself beautiful. We’re not going to lie — it’s really hard.
Father’s Little Helper
While under the influence of Valium, Scott Korb reflects on all the fathers he could have been and the father he has become.
Game of Crones
It wasn’t entirely Laura Lippman’s idea to become a mother in her 50s. But when it happened, she leaned in hard.
To Grieve Is to Carry Another Time
Matthew Salesses considers the impact of his wife’s passing, and other factors, on his experience as a human passing through the fourth dimension.
Bracing for the Silence of an Empty Nest
As her son finishes high school and prepares to leave for college, Michelle Cruz Gonzales looks back on his early years as a pianist and anticipates a future without the sound of his playing filling the house.
Barely There
In this personal essay, Jennifer Baker considers the ways in which hair removal rituals, begun in her tween years, have helped her achieve body acceptance and connect with her own desire.
