Published in Human Parts·May 21, 2020Love and WarI owe my new life to my Marine husband’s hideous death — Cleve’s prosthetic leg stood in the corner of my living room, its plastic foot still wearing his khaki Converse shoe. It was the third anniversary of his death, and I stared at the socket that once held his nub, remembering its shape. After the amputation, it was rounded, a pink…Memorial Day12 min read
Published in The Startup·May 26, 2019The U.S. Army Asked Its Twitter Followers How Serving Has Impacted ThemThousands responded and it is gut-wrenching — On Thursday, only days before Memorial Day, the U.S. Army posted a video to their Twitter of a young soldier, Pfc. Nathan Spencer. …Military5 min read
Published in Human Parts·May 12, 2019I Don’t Want to Hate the Only Body I’ll Ever HaveAt 33, I’m finally learning to shed a lifetime of shame — In my small Alabama high school, before I’d ever considered the calories I put into my body, a boy told me I needed to eat more cornbread to get some meat on my bones. He told me I had a flat ass, then said, “But at least you got DSL.”…Women7 min read
Published in Human Parts·Apr 7, 2019I Watched My Husband Die and Come to Life in a Single DayA war hero’s battle with opioid addiction — It had become normal to watch Cleve nod off. He was usually in the middle of doing something: smoking a cigarette, eating, assembling a model airplane. When he awoke, his body would quake back to life. His eyes would snap open and scan the room, pupils the size of moons…Addiction15 min read
Published in Human Parts·Feb 5, 2019Surviving As a Woman in a Place Built for MenMy winter at Camp Lejeune — Jacksonville was a man’s world, the whole damn place a bachelor pad. The main road leading to Camp Lejeune wasn’t much more than asphalt and spindly pines. The rest was car lots, strip clubs, and tattoo parlors, chain restaurants, and a sad excuse for a mall. Young men with matching…War12 min read
Published in The Startup·Jan 23, 2019Need A MiracleI was at a stoplight when I noticed the one-armed man. His nose and cheekbones were prominent — sharp; the fleshiness of his cheeks had dried and creased. They were shadowed and dusted with whiskers. His prominent nose reminded me of Cleve’s; the bridge carefully arched, the tip rounded. The…Creative Non Fiction2 min read
Published in Human Parts·Jan 20, 2019How the Iraq War Changed My Life ForeverLove, resilience, and my husband’s war wounds — The first time I saw an amputee was in April 2006 at Bethesda Naval Hospital. I was 20 years old. The man was attractive, in his late teens to early twenties, with overgrown brown hair, the beginnings of a beard, and both legs missing just above the knees. …Life19 min read
Published in Human Parts·Jan 13, 2019All My Friends Are Pregnant, and All I Feel Is FearI’m not sure what’s scarier: losing touch with my friends when they become parents, or becoming one myself — One of my closest friends told me she was pregnant the other night over taco salads. I imagined us a year from then, sitting in her living room; Her, sitting across from me in her pajamas — her son latched to her breast — resenting me a little for being…Motherhood7 min read
Published in The Startup·Dec 18, 2018War HeroOn April 20, 2010 at 9:56 p.m., the day my husband’s body was found, an explosion occurred on the Deep Water Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, killing eleven crew members and injuring seventeen more. A well cracked, spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico for eighty-seven days…Addiction3 min read
