2017
Spins @ Datil Wells
Woke up to a full on Ménière’s disease vertigo attack one morning. It’s rare when that happens but it’s awful when it does because it’s a bad start to the day when your whole world is spinning and you’re stumbling around trying not to vomit. Ugh Fortunately it passed a few hours later and I was able to resume normal activities.
Recalled in No gas, no groceries2016
Moose tracks @ Bay of Fundy
I’m reminded of the time I hiked through a nature preserve near the Bay of Fundy which has one of the world’s largest tides. The tide was low so I was able to walk over to what’s normally an island, which was a very cool experience in itself, but I had chills afterwards when I walked back and saw new hoof prints right next to my footprints from a moose that had been quietly following me.
Recalled in Moon camping on the Shire2004
Tears for homeless
Our little Alyssa saw a homeless man for the first time on the side of a road and burst into tears, breaking all of our hearts.
Oh, the beautiful sweet humanity of children.
2001
Phantom brother
While on vacation in Nashville, Alyssa — a few years old at the time — started talking to someone in our hotel room. The thing is no one was visibly there. We asked her who she was talking to and she said, “My brother.”
It sent chills down our spines because we had a miscarriage of who we believe would have been our son a few months before Alyssa was born and she hadn’t known that…
1974
The new deaf kid in a hearing school
I knew something was up and different when I started 1st grade and strolled through the cafeteria for the first time to get in line and all these kids stared at me. In reality, I couldn’t blame them for that — back then I had to wear of huge hearing aids. It was like wearing a fat book strapped to the front of my chest with wires coming out of it to my ears. It was a hell of a way to broadcast my handicap. I knew I was different, but I still clearly remember that feeling of uneasiness as I walked through and seeing all those eyes following me with that look of “What’s wrong with him?” I felt like a circus freak who made the mistake of escaping from the circus I so loved.
I remember feeling very quiet inside and wanting to shrivel up so I wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb. But I had to keep walking through all those stares, what else could I do?