March 2018 – I.O. Kirkwood

Toddlers: How Mine Survived

Raising children is a fine line between harnessing demons and treating them as humans. It’s a difficult job. I’m so glad I’m done. See, I despise toddlers. I despised my own and I despise other people’s toddlers. Even when toddlers do the cutest things, more often than not, I’ve had to wrestle with them theContinue reading “Toddlers: How Mine Survived”

Old Lady Badges

As I get older, I realize that my mother was an old lady well before her body had caught up. I don’t know if it’s my medication or a strict code of courtesy that my mother had passed to me when she died, but I have begun to collect my Old Lady Badges. What areContinue reading “Old Lady Badges”

The Release of Death

I can only speak of my own experience now that someone with enormous influence over my life has died. I could write about the horrors of those last two weeks or how I cried when I made one of the most harrowing decisions of my life. Instead, I’m going to write about the last twoContinue reading “The Release of Death”

The Art of Courtesy

I am no Miss Manners. I curse like a sailor. I have foot-in-mouth syndrome to such a degree that LSCWs despair of my ever being cured. But there is one thing my father taught me, and it is the bedrock of all good things in society. He told me this as a child and IContinue reading “The Art of Courtesy”

An Open Letter to Melissa

Dear Missy: I’m writing this letter and making it public now that school shootings have become a “normal” fact of life. To me, you are kindness incarnate, and though I may never reach such heights, your nature is a standard that I’ve made my own. I was an awkward girl: small, thin, and poorly dressed.Continue reading “An Open Letter to Melissa”