After covering the plights of refugees around the world as a journalist, Bryan Mealer finds himself a refugee, fleeing New York City for his childhood home of west Texas — where his great-grandmother and her oldest daughter died in the influenza epidemic of 1918.
loss
Posted inEditor's Pick
All That Is Lost and All That Is Remembered
On the 30th anniversary of her Navy captain father’s political execution, Naz Riahi recalls her love for him, and reveals a persistent grief that is always with her.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
At Mrs. Balbir’s
Jillian Dunham traveled thousands of miles from home to get away from her grief. It found her anyway, in a stranger’s Bangkok apartment.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
Searching Sephora for an Antidote to Aging — and Grief
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.
Posted inHighlight, Quote Posts, Quotes
Finding Solace in the Charged Particles of the Aurora Borealis
“Cree First Nations believe ‘the northern lights are dancing spirits of loved ones who have passed on.’”
Posted inNonfiction
The Christmas Tape
Wendy McClure recounts how an old audio tape of holiday music becomes a record of family history, unspoken rituals, and grief.
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Woman’s Work: Becoming a Home of One’s Own
Carolita Johnson considers what it takes to recover from grief, build strength for the future, and become one’s own center of gravity again.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why I Wanted to Finish My Father’s Life’s Work
In this personal essay, Karen Brown recalls the pain and joy of fulfilling a deathbed promise.
Posted inNonfiction
California Burning
A year after the Camp Fire, Tessa Love contemplates home, California’s undoing, and what it means to belong.
Posted inNonfiction
A Woman’s Work: Till Death Do Us Part
Carolita Johnson considers the emotional and physical labor required of women as their loved ones die.