Eleanor Roosevelt was sadly mistaken. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent,” she said. With all due respect, Mrs. Roosevelt, I never really consented to anything. At age five, I never knew that I even had a choice. There were only the taut, puppeteering strings of intimidation and coercion, and the inherent inferiority that dwells inside those who endure the silent shame and denigration of sexual abuse.  → Read More

Every time I see a magazine or newspaper or Internet article devoted to the “new, blended” family, I think perhaps I should tell my story—my blended-family story. Here it is. It may not seem like a happy story at first, but it is a story about change, about transition. As so many life-changing events do, it all started with a telephone call of bad news.  → Read More

This is why I drank. When I was fourteen years old, my grandmother slid her glass of E&J Brandy on the rocks to me where I was sitting at the other end of the dining room table and said, “Try this.”  → Read More

An engagement dinner for my daughter is winding down. Family members embrace each other before heading forth exuberantly into the night air, lifted by the tangible evidence of true love. An elderly aunt turns to me, the mother of the future bride, hugs me tightly, and whispers in my ear, “I’m sure there’s another ring in your future, and that your own day will come again.” “God,” I blurt out with a chuckle, “I hope not!”  → Read More

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness month and to kick it off Chicken Soup for the Soul shared an excerpt from one of their latest titles, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Living with Alzheimer’s & Other Dementias by Amy Newmark and Angela Timashenka Geiger.  → Read More

In my twenties, I didn’t feel much different than most aspiring young adults trying to find my place. I had exceptional highs with great friendships, travel, and my early career. And devastating lows. The loss of loved ones will always highlight those years for me. Then, at the age of 32, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  → Read More

My body shook as the officer walked toward me. He was about to confirm what I had spent the last several hours telling myself could not be true. “There is no easy way to tell you this. Your husband took his own life.” I turned, ran ten steps, and collapsed on the ground, screaming.  → Read More

Six years ago I was living the “American Dream”- married to a successful man, living in a beautiful home, driving a luxury car, and was a stay-at-home mom raising three daughters. You can’t prepare for the carnage divorce brings into your lives. Feeling discouraged, unfulfilled and financially stretched, I awoke one morning facing another day of the “dog eat dog” world of sales. I asked myself some difficult questions: If you could do anything, what would it be? I quit my job that day. With fear and trembling, I tiptoed into the community college.  → Read More

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