It would eventually come up after a few dates, the women wanting to know family details.

“You poor thing, so sad your mother died during childbirth.”

“Yes, sad,” I’d reply, and save the sadder story that my father is in jail for blowing her head off in the delivery room.

Jerri Clayton is a freelance writer/editor and also works full time at Southern New Hampshire University as a copywriter and editor of fundraising communications. Jerri received her MFA in nonfiction from Southern New Hampshire University. She is concurrently dabbling in fiction, working on a series of essays about runners, and continues revising her memoir, In the Long Run. Visit her website: JerriClayton.com.