The story of the week for February 17 to 21 is…
How to Move Your Mother to Assisted Living by Jennifer L. Freed
All posts by Tim
JENNIFER L FREED: How to Move Your Mother To Assisted Living
Fill the cardboard boxes with choices.
Promise you’ll find homes for her great aunt’s linens,
her father’s oak desk, the paired wingchairs
she’s had for forty years.
Listen to her memories.
Let her change her mind, keep
the blue quilt, donate
the green one.
Don’t mention the inevitable estate sale.
Jennifer L Freed is author of When Light Shifts, a memoir-in-poems on care-giving, aging, and family relationships, inspired by the aftermath of her mother’s stroke. Her parents still inspire her. Please visit jfreed.weebly.com to learn more.
SUSAN HEISNER: Connor’s Debut
The motivational speakers took the stage. The audience didn’t expect these founders of the phenomenally successful dog-training company, Sit Down!, to unveil a new venture. On command, their yellow lab, Connor, joined them at the microphone to explain, in an almost imperceptible canine accent, his handlers’ latest enterprise, Speak Up!
Susan Heisner, aka the wyowordslinger, writes for fun and connection.
BILLIE-LEIGH BURNS: We Need To Talk
He always corners you in the kitchen with, “What did you want to talk about?”
Under pressure of expectations and the sizzling stove, your resolve melts like the butter in the frying pan.
You serve him a plate of, “Nothing!” and eat your own heart out with a side salad.
Billie-Leigh Burns is a writer from Liverpool. Her work has been featured by 50 Word Stories, 101 words, Funny Pearls, and The Hooghly Review. She is also a maths tutor and a bookkeeper, making her the only writer she knows who owns an ‘I Heart Spreadsheets’ mug.
DAVID WILLIAMSON: The Last of a Flock
Take an index card, sketch native species – today, the grey-winged trumpeter – on the upper third, outline with fine-tip permanent marker, shade with multicolored charcoals, copy conservation status, diet, wingspan, lifespan, apply homemade stamp, let dry, laminate, round off corners, toss into the pile, pray for your old trading card buddy.
David Williamson is a mathematician by day, avid reader and writer by night. Many of his pieces cover the topics of health, love, friendship, and what can create or extinguish hope. He loves writing and equally enjoys digging into data and numbers and finding the stories they tell. His first short story was published in 2024 in The First Line literary journal, so he is just beginning his writing career!
JON BERLIN: The Nightly Broadcast
As his hearing failed, Robert cataloged creatures with exceptional hearing so he could know them—a bat; a barn owl; a fox; any of the cephalopods; the dachshund he had when he was a little boy. At night, he would dream he was one of them, listening to the world.
Jon Berlin enjoys writing fiction. He owns a typewriter.
MICHAEL GIGANDET: Birthday Girl
She would’ve been born in June if I’d done more. I’m just saying she. That feels right to me, her father. This stop light, a street corner, anywhere really, I hold her to me, mentally. For her birthday I send checks to shelters like that’s something. Like gifts.
Michael Gigandet is a retired lawyer in Tennessee. His stories have appeared in Bending Genres, Quarencia Press, Great Weather for Media, Palm Sized Press, Pure Slush and The Hong Kong Literary Journal. His published stories are available at michaelgigandet.com. He administers a music page on Twitter/X at @motobec810.
JAMES VESCOVI: Lint
Serena learned what lint was. She tucked some in a pouch to keep her parents close. She did the same after a sleepover, when her friends’ nightgowns were dried after a water-fight. After her mother’s miscarriage, Serena collected lint from the panties. She’d wanted a sibling. It wasn’t just lint.
James Vescovi’s work has appeared in the Hudson Review, the Georgetown Review, Newsweek, the New York Times, Saturday Evening Post, Creative Nonfiction, The Other Journal, and other publications.
ELANUR WILLIAMS: Lessons in Holding
In the blue morning light, the baby reaches for her knees, stretches her body against star-patterned sheets, her eyes like silver moons across moving water, unselfconscious vowels breaking into laughter and smiles freely given and not earned; I could learn how to hold and be held in these arms outstretched.
Elanur Williams writes from New York City, where she lives with her husband and daughter.
STORY OF THE MONTH: January 2025
The Story of the Month is chosen from the Story of the Week winners announced from the past month.
The finalists for January were:
Shadowing by Sam Hall
Morning by Amanda LaMantia
Shivering to Death by Bob Thurber
Autonomy by Jenny Mattern
Duplicity by Fiona H. Evans
The winner of the January 2025 Story of the Month, and the $10 prize, is…
Duplicity