I was twenty-three, freshly promoted to assistant manager at a retail job that offered health insurance, when I took my parents to The Cheesecake Factory for their anniversary. I remember the weight of the leather-bound menu, heavy as a textbook, and how my mom whispered "this is too ...Read More
My dad called last week to tell me that my cousin bought a house. A four-bedroom colonial with what he described, with genuine awe, as "a really substantial lawn." He delivered this news like my cousin had just cured cancer. "When are you going to settle down?" he asked, ...Read More
She sat across from me at the grief support group, perfectly still except for her hands, which kept folding and unfolding the same tissue. "Everyone keeps telling me how strong I am," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "But I don't feel strong. I just feel ...Read More
My father-in-law still says "groovy" unironically. Not as a joke, not with air quotes, but as his genuine response to good news. "That's groovy, kiddo," he told my teenage niece when she made the debate team. Her face cycled through confusion, secondhand embarrassment, and the particular exhaustion that ...Read More
I met Richard at a coffee shop near the senior center—not inside it, mind you, because he "wasn't one of those old people." At 68, he'd spent the better part of our conversation explaining why his children rarely called, why his neighbors were "too nosy," and why he'd ...Read More
The woman at the next table was doing mental math out loud. "Twenty-eight dollars for salmon? I can get four pounds at Costco for that." Her husband nodded, scanning the wine list with the intensity of someone defusing a bomb. Their teenage daughter sank lower in her chair, ...Read More