The day I was told my husband wasn’t going to survive

Seven years ago today, I was already in Sean’s room at UAB. I followed the ambulance up I-65 the night before, broke into the hotel just after 1 AM—yes, literally, by kicking the door panel when no concierge was available in the lobby nor was answering the phone

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What decentralizing men feels like (and how I did it)

I had to burn down a bajillion times. The patriarchy only has to burn once. But one day, we will all be free of this conditioned nonsense. But that starts with going inward and decentralizing the external. When I walked away from one of the best things that’s ever happened to me, I saved myself, and I took back my power, and guys…I rather like it. I think I’m going to keep it.

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And I hope you make me dance

And that’s true. No matter what happens, when you left, you were my husband. I became a widow. Not a divorcee, not a single woman. A widow, and like you said, and as I’m sure you’d expect, not a conventional widow. Like you said in your letter…a Ms. Scarlett, the widow who wears black and dances with a blockade runner at the charity auction, the kind of woman who digs in the dirt to plant seeds so she can rise again, the consummate survivor.

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