All this time it had been waiting for me right where I left it — It’s Christmas 1980. I’m seven years old and standing on the upholstered footrest of my grandfather’s reading chair, which I have strategically positioned in the very center of my grandparent’s New Jersey living room. Over my holiday dress, I’m wearing my grandmother’s fancy, pink bathrobe. On my ears are a…

Overcoming the fear of sharing a personal story — Why do we, as writers, need to write about the things that make us feel ashamed? Why we need to share the stories that others don’t? First, I think you need to ask yourself what those stories are for you? They are easy to identify because they are the things…

I had spent the pandemic living in virtual isolation because of breast cancer, and now I was being thrown back into a world I didn’t recognize — In June of 2021, I was at a high school graduation party in a sprawling suburban backyard sipping rosé. A woman was talking to me about where her daughter was going to college in the fall. …

Breast cancer, more than any other cancer, has a marketing message around it and October, being breast cancer awareness month, means the last few weeks it has been everywhere. This was my second October since being diagnosed with breast cancer and honestly, I can’t wait for November. Pink ribbons. Pink…

My husband and I started recalling the days when the kids weren’t the biggest thing we had in common — The last week of August, my husband and I dropped the twins, our only two children, off at college. On two consecutive days standing outside two college dorms, I hugged each of my children tightly, got in the car, and sobbed. Everyone said it was going to be hard. “You…

Writer Darcey Gohring reflects on how the combination changed her life forever — I found the tumor in April 2020, weeks after Covid-19 descended on New York City. I was forty-six, extremely healthy, and had no family history of breast cancer. I’m still not sure what changed me more — experiencing breast cancer or having it happen at the onset of a pandemic…

There were tons of people we couldn’t wait to reconnect with, but first we had to reconnect with each other — Let me start by saying, I love to cook. At least I did until a few months ago. Living under Covid restrictions, dinner had become a finely orchestrated event in our house, and I was the director of activities. …

Sometimes the most disastrous vacation days end up becoming favorite family memories — It was the worst heatwave Europe had seen in decades. Dubbed “Lucifer,” southern Europe was experiencing record-breaking temperatures in August of 2017. We were in the middle of the Italian countryside surrounding Lake Garda on a family biking trip. In the morning, a bus dropped us off in the village…

The only way forward was to reclaim the parts of my identity outside of motherhood — My daughter and I are in the kitchen. She is slicing cucumbers for the salad. I’m stirring a pot of tomato sauce. “I’ve been thinking,” she says. “Wouldn’t it be so cool if I went to college on the West Coast?” I take the wooden spoon out of the sauce…