I was still recovering from the mixed emotions of seeing my boyfriend for the first time in months combined with reverse culture shock, but all of those distractions went out the window when I saw his mother lying comatose in the hospital bed.
death
feelings
I'm a perfectionist, a straight-A student and a former cheerleader. I created the plastic version of myself: bubbly and smiley with a refusal to fail.
bad dreams
This is also just an excuse to publish a bunch of rad pictures of the Milester.
spooky stuff
Some people use the Internet for porn, I use it to fall down the rabbit hole of creepy stuff.
moms
Suddenly, at 20 years old, I was the head of the family, and I had to take care of my sisters, who were 15 and 16, on my own.
ihtm contest
On September 11, 2001, my father disappeared forever into the dust and flames and papers that rained down on lower Manhattan.
death
There are days that the pain is so bad that I pray for sleep and I pray that I never have to wake up again.
ihtm contest
After covering my face and screaming for what felt like hours, I managed to roll my car off of the man.
ihtm contest
Local gossip mongers flooded message boards to debate my father’s character. He was a weirdo and a creep, they claimed, always driving around in his van checking out children.
ihtm contest
It was one early morning in February when I decided I needed to get out. I needed to prove to myself I could have an adventure, some sort of quest that would make me realize I could have some sort of meaningful experience unaided by anyone else.
moms
People ask me how I’m doing, and when I say, “I’m fine,” they nod, assuming I’m holding something back for their benefit. But I’m not. I am fine. I am good. I am all right.
ihtm
On Halloween night 1991, my 17-year-old sister Misty was shot and killed by a neighbor at a Halloween party in an apartment house in Clarksville, TN.
mothers
I would never know my mother. What I mean is I would never really know her as I would if she had lived and grayed and grew to view me as an equal.
fathers
My dad was biking along a busy stretch of road about 10 minutes from our house when he was hit by a guy in a van who had momentarily fallen asleep at the wheel. He died that day.
babies
I would do anything to hear her heartbeat again. Why didn't I record it? I smell her little hat and cry.
posessions
Treasured possessions are not just the things that you’d rescue from a burning building; they’re the things that you’d burn for.
death
I've caught myself feeling apathetic about the death of a man I saw often and that's scary.
death
Caitlin Doughty of "Ask a Mortician" says you should talk to your kids about death. And a pet psychic says my dead cat visits me.
Somer Sherwood in
Family Drama,
death,
parenting,
kids,
talking to kids about death,
sandy hook,
ghost cats,
ask a mortician
Dec 20, 2012 at 1:30pm | 56 comments
friendship
While his family sat around him sobbing uncontrollably, I sat there with a burning, swelling pit in my stomach. All of this was my fault.
death
Unfortunately, I don’t have a magical secret to healing. I wish I did. Still, what I can do is let you know what I’ve learned since 2002.
family drama
I didn’t know it yet, but by the time I sent that tweet, my mom had already been dead for nine minutes.
family drama
With the discovery of his life after death, I went from being a one-in-a-million enigma to some poor slob whose no-good father ran out on her mom.
