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Maybe it is The Gilded Age viewing, but I have been noting some social mores and trends when it comes to mourning and grieving. First, condolences. It is not 1893. You most likely have a cell phone, email, Messenger, or a myriad of communication tools. Extend your condolences directly to the grieving person. Not their […]
It is about as close to 7 hours and 15 days as I can calculate. My father’s birthday has passed, my grandfather’s as well. Valentine’s Day (which was horrible) and soon enough Ash Wednesday, Easter, Mother’s Day, etc. But what strikes me about this is the fact that people seem to really think 7 hours […]
I’ve been watching The Gilded Age on HBO+ and this is one in an occasional rambling reflection on things the show brings to mind. Not a review – maybe, one day – just thoughts. There are two stories in my family that reflect the multiple dimensions of The Gilded Age. In 1862, William McClelland Ritter […]
Cypress Ramos, a 21-year-old Latina trans woman, was found dead on February 13, 2022 in her hometown of Lubbock, Texas. Cypress died from blunt force trauma. Her suspect was quickly identified as 32 year-old Allan Montemayor and has been arrested and faces a murder charge. Her body was found inside a storage locker in a […]
I’m not a believer in neat little transitions between “stages” of grief. Grief is messy and complicated and ugly. It is not dainty moist eyes on a lace kerchief. Well it might be, but it is also heaving sobs that drown any nearby material in the angst and sorrow of a broken heart. Grief oozes, […]
I keep thinking about the lyric from Prince’s Song ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ It’s been seven hours and 15 daysSince you took your love away When will that be? My mother died on Thursday February 10 at 6:45 PM. So does that mean at 1:45 AM on February 26, that grief moment will hit? Will […]
Martina Caldera was 38-years-old. Martina Caldera, a Latina transgender woman, was found fatally shot in Houston, Texas on December 6, 2021. Caldera’s death is at least the 56th violent killing of a transgender or gender non-conforming person in 2021. Her death is at least the 6th 2021 homicide to come to light in 2022. Investigators […]
Naomie Skinner was a 25-year-old Black trans woman from Kentucky. On Saturday, February 12, 2022, she became the third trans person reported dead in 2022. Per The Detroit News: A Highland Park man is accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend after an argument escalated and then dragging her body out of an apartment and into […]
One year ago, I was among a group of 17 individuals nominated and approved to serve as Pittsburgh’s first LGBTQIA+ Commission. That was February 9, 2021 so a little more than a year. Sue Kerr, Kathi Boyle, Richard Parsakian, Leonard Orbovich, Sarah Rosso, Jam Hammond, Guillermo Velazquez, Denise DeSimone, Luca Salerno, Tiffini Simoneaux, Nekia Burton […]
When I was a kid, I remember funerals with cards in the mail, casseroles, prayers, flowers, and other very tangible examples of sympathy and condolences. And other perhaps odd but thoughtful gestures – a neighbor taking the car to fuel it up so that wasn’t a concern, someone minding the baby without being asked, lawns […]
