There's Only One Path In Life. The Path Of You.
I didn’t know my family was abusive until I was well into my teens. When you don’t know something is abnormal, you can’t develop defenses against it. You just absorb it as the way things are. How relationships work and what family means. You build your whole understanding of human connection on a foundation of … Read more
My father would take a bus from New York to New Jersey and arrive at the stop several blocks from our apartment at around ten in the morning. My older brother and I would be there to meet him. Then we’d go get burgers, sometimes go to a movie. Occasionally do some shopping if we … Read more
The Hospital (Part 1) I was twelve when my father finally died, though “finally” might sound harsh to anyone who didn’t spend nearly a year watching someone deteriorate from the inside out. He’d been diagnosed with throat cancer about a year earlier, the crystal-clear result of smoking at least a pack of Kent brand cigarettes … Read more
Part 1 – The Uncle-In-Law’s Relative’s Place It didn’t happen exactly on Christmas, but it was definitely around the holidays on a Saturday night, and I was ten years old. I’d been dragged to some family’s home for a holiday dinner. They were friends or relatives of my uncle-in-law or something, one of those strange … Read more