immediate family

Blood makes you related, loyalty makes you family.

My Very Godmother
I'm not sure I can do this. It's too hard. I know what you told me once, "Just pretend you know what you're doing. No one will know the difference."
By Debra Rogers5 years ago in Families
Dear Mom,
Dear Mom, I know I have given you so much grief over the years. About how you did this instead of that or didn’t do something I felt you should have done. I just wanted you to know how strong I always thought you were. I didn’t quite understand the strength of a woman and how much was required until I too became a mother. Granted, I have only been one for seven years, but I have learned so much and I understand so much more about why you made choices you made and how much you sacrificed for us.
By Zelda Foxx5 years ago in Families
To My Girls. Top Story - March 2021.
To my girls, The assignment is to write an open letter to the strongest woman I know. But how can I choose just one when each of you is so incredible?
By S. Frazer5 years ago in Families
MY MOTHER AND MY OTHER MOTHER
Two Women. I cannot talk about one without interlacing the lives of both. My Mother and my Aunt. My Aunt and my Mother. Murdena and Mary.
By Novel Allen5 years ago in Families
How Embarrassing!!!
Rather than choose just one embarrassing, cringe-worthy moment, I decided to write about a few instances that happened to not only me but to a few of my family members as well. Yes, they are embarrassing, but as time goes by they just turn into funny, cute memories that we often reminisce about.
By Margie Anderson 5 years ago in Families
To My Little Girl
To My Little Girl, At just twelve years old, you are the absolute strongest woman I know. From your very beginning you have been a force to be reckoned with as you've beat every obstacle thrown at you. While you've had your days that I could see it in your eyes that you could break at any moment, you've stood tall and become stronger than I could ever have hoped for you. While I'm sorry that you've had to be that strong, I'm so proud of you for it.
By Torii Gibson5 years ago in Families
A Sister's Love
Dear Kee, Never could I be able to thank you as much as I truly want to. There is so much about you that the world just doesn’t know. That I wish I could shout and everyone would know just how strong you are. You haven’t had an easy life, and I know becoming an older sister to twins when you’re about to turn nineteen two weeks later, might not have been ideal, but you’ve taken life and you’ve worked with what you have. I couldn’t imagine how you felt that day. I couldn’t be there because I was only two, but I was there when you needed the laughs. When you needed to know, we came to help you. You lost your child when you were only twenty-one. He was only a day old. And not just that, you found out you had a devastating autoimmune disorder; lupus. I can’t remember your tears, but I remember your pain. Every day you staggered to your feet and went through your day, even when your body couldn’t handle it. Even when you were on the bathroom floor crunched up in pain. You never gave up. But that day still rings inside your head and sometimes still makes you cry. You never let it show that you were as hurt as you were. You took the role and you became a mother to your sisters. Loving us like no one had ever done. Until one day, you did have a child of your own, but you never forgot the two that were there for you in the beginning.
By S.J Mansfield5 years ago in Families
Everyone’s a Food Critic
Has your mother ever squawked in your ear to eat your vegetables? You have my compassion. What do you think happens when a parent’s blind fanaticism for a clean plate collides with the confused taste buds of their offspring?
By Carrie R5 years ago in Families
Shirley
Shirley Aka used to be known as Ma Dukes Someone told me to write about my mom or aunt or grandmother. Grammy, check.
By Erica Jordan5 years ago in Families
Cotton Candy Envelopes
Once a month a pastel envelope falls from the hole in the door. A woosh sound is heard as it floats its way to the floor with a light thud. When I turn over that rectangular package, I see a preprinted label on the front. Something my mother has always been concerned about, no one will understand her. This little Polish lady in black square glasses has been fighting her entire life. From a life in a Communist country to fending through new hurtles in a foreign land. You hear many stories from so many different family members. Why they left the country and why they settled in a place that they did not understand. These mailing labels explain how my mother used her tenacity to continue on when you have no idea what is in front of you.
By Ewa Ritchie5 years ago in Families
I Like To Say, 'I Grew up Rough'
I like to say I grew up rough. When I say ‘I grew up rough’, I mean that my dad and his friends fashioned paddles out of two by fours and traded them with each other like trophies and their favorite one had thirty-six holes and it whistled through the air and snapped like a frozen lake that’s being walked on and isn’t quite strong enough to support weight, and that half-second breath before the ice splits, is the red lattice pattern that ring-worms itself through skin.
By Melynda Kloc5 years ago in Families
An Unorthodox Easter
My mother calls me a cashew, like the nut. Since my father is catholic and my mother is Jewish, I seem to be stuck in between the two religions. If you combine the words catholic and Jewish, we can pretend it would make a word close to cashew, right? Although neither my brother nor I were raised religiously, we do still celebrate the holidays. (I would have to argue that this is more for our grandparents sake then ours, but that is just the angsty teen in me coming out.)
By Amanda Mitchell5 years ago in Families