Tag: grief
What I Want You to Know on Your Mom’s Birthday
How your mom showed me I had really messed something up was the same way she showed me I had done something remarkably well: she cried. This was also how she showed embarrassment, fear, anxiety, joy, or any of a cluster of emotions that… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know on Your Mom’s Birthday”
To My Wife, On the Second Anniversary of Her Death
This day has arrived, though it doesn’t seem true. How’d I make it through one year, let alone two, Living a life that doesn’t have you?
What I Want You to Know About Things That Are Broken
“You be as angry as you need to be,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your grandma, not your dad, no one. And if you need to break things, then by God, you break them good and hard.” Patrick Ness, A… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About Things That Are Broken”
What I Want You to Know About Shooting Hoops
The roster is expanding. The Dashers recently added your cousins and your best friend at school, who finally gave in to your incessant offers to join the team. We are now at eight members, and with each new addition, my spot on the squad… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About Shooting Hoops”
What I Want You to Know About the New-Fallen Snow
“I’m going to tell you something, and then after that can we stop talking about it?” “Sure,” I say. “What is it?” “Promise me you won’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you?” “OK, I promise.”
What I Want You to Know About the Air We Breathe
We walk up the stairs to the second floor of the hospital and stop in front of the door to the ICU. A nurse hands us a clipboard with a small card fastened to it. We walk over to a bench near the elevators… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About the Air We Breathe”
What I Want You to Know About Grief and Gratitude
We’re a couple hours into the road trip when you wake up from your nap and say, “Dad, I’m getting hungry.” “Me too, buddy. I’ll pull over at the next spot and we’ll grab some breakfast.” A few miles later I see one of… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About Grief and Gratitude”
What I Want You to Know About Squid Game
“I really regret doing it,” you confess. “I feel really, really bad about it.” We are in the car driving home from school and you are in the backseat, unburdening yourself of your great misdeed. Looking at you in the rearview mirror, I notice… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About Squid Game”
What I Want You to Know About What I Think Happens When We Die
Even to my untrained eyes, the objects in the black-and-white CT scan seemed misshapen. A burgeoning blob filled most of the ovular cross-section of your mom’s abdomen. Squeezed into the bottom right corner were several other organs, huddled together as if in fear of… Continue Reading “What I Want You to Know About What I Think Happens When We Die”
If There Is a Heaven
It’s the two year anniversary of your great-grandpa’s passing. He was the first significant person in your world to die, and it was my first taste of having to talk to you about hard things, something I’ve had to do a lot in the… Continue Reading “If There Is a Heaven”
A Widowed Father 