It should have been more momentous. Sitting there, in a classroom last week, listening to my autistic son’s teacher tell me that he was doing well in all his subjects was the stuff of my dreams a few years ago. A reality I couldn’t imagine, but one I hoped to attain in the far away [...]
Filed under: 2010s, autism, college, confidence, developmental delays, early intervention, elementary school, faith, fear, insecurity, son, special education, teachers, therapy | 1 Comment »
“So Mom, do you think that you’ll be going back to teaching or something now that Michael is doing better in school?” asked my eldest son, home for the in between of his college days and his working days. I understand why it’s on his mind. He has spent every day since his graduation last [...]
Filed under: 2010s, college, job, security, son, stay at home mother | Leave a Comment »
“Mom, I have some news for you.” I gulped, holding the phone. It was a cold day in March, and I wondered what my boy, standing in his apartment seven hundred miles away in college was about to tell me. I remembered uttering those words to my mother as well, from my dorm room 100 [...]
Filed under: 2010s, boyfriends, college, dating, girlfriends, insecurity, parents, son | Leave a Comment »
These days I call him “my eldest”. It’s innocuous enough to not belie his non traditional way into the world, my nearly 22 year old son. It still stings every time I hear the phrase, “Wow, you look young for your age” (insinuating that of course I must be older than I appear because otherwise [...]
Filed under: 2010s, college, death, extended family, hospitals, single parent, son, strength | Leave a Comment »
“Mom, look at this.” Z handed me an envelope. It was oversized, and the return address was the University of Pittsburgh. He hadn’t opened it yet. Helping Zach apply to colleges last fall had been an overwhelming experience for me. It was a constant series of flashbacks to my own time doing the same thing. [...]
Filed under: 2000s, college, high school, son | Leave a Comment »
I was sitting in the same classroom I’d sat in ten years ago, a student once again. I could see Mr. Vance’s handwriting still on the chalkboard, the same lessons as when I took his Advanced Composition II class: weekly vocabulary drills to prepare us for the SATs, journal assignments about current events to be [...]
Filed under: 1990s, college, confidence, faith, high school, job, single parent, teachers, teaching | Leave a Comment »
I was coming back down I 75 in my mother’s car, five hours into the drive. I was “somewhere in the middle” with the radio turned up and Zachary fast asleep in the back. I’d left Houghton early this morning, before Tom’s roommates were even awake. I just couldn’t take it any more. Three weeks [...]
Filed under: 1990s, boyfriends, cancer, college, dating, fear, love, mother, road trip, siblings, son | Leave a Comment »
I was sitting in a waiting room in a hospital. I was so used to this waiting room that I started to greet the same people who sat in it, along with us, five days a week. Zachary was playing on the floor at my feet. He had a plush football in his hands. Our [...]
Filed under: 1990s, cancer, college, doctors, hospitals, mother, son, strength | Leave a Comment »
June 6, 1992. “I’ll call you tomorrow, as soon as I get there,” Tom was telling me. We were laying together on my bed, quiet, the house still around us. Zachary was long since asleep; it was late. My mother was at the hospital receiving her second round of chemotherapy. I knew this day had [...]
Filed under: 1990s, boyfriends, college, fear, hospitals, insecurity, love | Leave a Comment »
“How does it feel?” Tom asked from beside me at the Big Boy restaurant. “To finally be a college graduate? Well, sort of.” Dawn, Tom and I were out at Big Boy having a post graduation dessert. Dawn had attended the ceremony with me, along with my sister and parents. Each graduate was allowed four [...]
Filed under: 1990s, boyfriends, cancer, college, dating, girlfriends, parents, siblings, son | Leave a Comment »
