In 1986, I moved from the Tidewater area of Virginia, where I was born and raised, to Florida. Everyone seemed surprised—even though I had sworn I would move there ever since our 1975 family vacation. On that trip, we visited Marco Island, which was then largely undeveloped. I spent my days blissfully wandering the nearly…
My mother often told us that we had salt water in our blood. Like my father, paternal grandparents, and great grandparents before me, I’ve always lived near the oean. When I’m away from the coast, my skin scabs and my nose dries out. While I find the desert and mountains beautiful, I cannot tolerate the…
Author’s Note: Portions of this article first appeared in the Carolinas Communication Association Annual, VOL. XXXV (2019), titled “Mentoring as Applied Communication Education” by Deborah Breede and Margene Willis.
All my life I have wanted to be a schoolteacher. One of my favorite Christmas presents was a chalkboard with colored chalk. My favorite game to play…
One of the happiest days of my adult life was the day I enrolled in Medicare. As a three-time cancer survivor and an incredibly clumsy human being who’s had multiple freak injuries—including a bicycle wreck that landed me in the hospital for two weeks when I was 14—I’ve always followed my father’s very good advice.…
Shootings, Skittles, and Black Lives Matter
Author’s Note: This is the final in a three-part series written to recognize Black History Month and the martyred who helped make it so. Warning: Graphic descriptions of violence contained herein.
Like many folks, I have woken up several mornings to the news of a terrible death. On November 22,…
The place where I sit is peculiar, like the institution that shaped it (Creel, 1988), like the people who were brought here. It is a graveyard; it commands hushed tones. Its beauty is soothing to the heart, an opiate – an addictive, sensual beckoning. It is also a place of atrocity and pain. Killing fields.…
Author’s Note: This article’s introduction previously appeared in The Journal of Loss and Trauma on March 18, 2023 in the article “Remembering Mother: Reconstituting Voice and Identity through Narrative with Alzheimer’s Patients” and appears here with the permission of the author, Deborah Cunningham Breede.
"Man, ban, fan..." Mom emphatically points at the man in the…