He shook with small blades of grass for a millisecond, like he was slow dancing with a dream.     Our eyes locked misty-white, vacant.   When I got to him a red-tinged hue of departure had already taken him.   I pulled a tattered letter from his fingers, the one he asked me to ...

Howling winds gust through trees, forcing branches to graze the house’s siding. Their finger-like limbs taunt and tease, and Harlie bolts awake. Her heart races as she listens with a keen ear. She shivers and grumbles about Kurt’s new work schedule, which leaves her alone at night. Tapping the mattress with a hand, she calls ...

October 10, 2015 Sunday mornings in October meant getting up early to work at the Hilti Ballfields. Dad served as the head groundskeeper there, making sure that the fields were in order for the little league games. He hired my siblings and I to walk the fields an hour before dawn to pick up the ...

** Trigger Warning – Physical abuse/attack, Death/loss ** Lindsey’s friends warn her to stay out of the old cemetery when night falls on Hallows Eve. They claim it becomes a spiritual conduit and that a malicious entity appears. She ponders whether or not to heed her friends’ warnings as she maneuvers her red Jeep along ...

When my Dad died, I was shocked to hear that the beneficiary had been changed on his life insurance policy. When my aunt helped him fill out this paperwork, he had her put my Grandmother, my younger sister, and myself, his oldest daughter. Yet, sometime after my Grandmother’s death and my father’s heart attack and ...

Physician-assisted suicide is only legal in a handful of states, and most of society seems to be firmly opposed to allowing an individual the right to make decisions concerning when and how their life should end. Regardless of the symptoms that the ill person is having, how much they are suffering, or how deteriorated their ...

As a psychology major, I have had the opportunity to study a lot of very interesting topics. One that has always interested me the most is Thantaphobia that occurs during late adulthood, and the negative impacts it can have on a person’s quality of life. Thantaphobia, or death anxiety, is the fear or anxiety that ...

The theory of individual bodies containing a separate entity that survives death has been the main topic of ancient and modern philosophers for millions of years. Although this topic has been debated for many years, no one really knows if the soul does or does not exist. However, there are philosophers that have argued that ...

In Honor of Chuck Ballard 1972-2016 April 6, 2016. Saint Francis Hospital. Day 3: My daddy’s fight against colorectal cancer came to an end that night, in a white hospital room surrounded by the people who loved him most. We’d known that it was coming for three days and we still weren’t ready. I’d been sitting beside his ...