Charley is a woman who is burdened with immense emotional pain. She has suffered for herself and for her daughter, Jenny, for many years. Doctors are able to keep Jenny alive after her heart stops, but to what end? Confined to her twisted, silent body, Jenny is, for all intents and purposes, gone.

Gone is a fantasy novel based on the true story of Julie Elizabeth Powell and her daughter Samantha. In the novel, Charley is thrust into a sometimes strange, sometimes comforting…

I spent a few minutes on-line this morning trying to find out how many steps the average person takes in a day.  I knew it was a big mistake the minute I typed the words into the search bar, but I thought it would be a fun fact to know.  Well, I was right: it was a big mistake.  How can anyone really know?  Who goes around counting their steps and posting the number on the internet, anyway?  No one,…

I can’t see her wings but I know she’s an angel. Maybe she’s hiding her wings under her dress. I wish I could see them and touch them. Will they be as I imagine, soft and white as a cloud?



She is old because she’s lived on Earth for a long time. When I think about her as a young woman, I see her in black and white, like an old picture you find in a box in the closet. Her face is pretty, her skin is soft and her eyes are as black as the night. She looks like an…

The adults are crying and hugging as they come into the house and as they leave. One lady nestles my Mami’s face in her hands. It looks like she is trying to hold Mami’s face together. Another person gives Papi a big hug, the kind where they slap each other on the back really hard. The kids aren’t crying or hugging, we’re playing on the floor with a set of Jacks.

The cold tile floor feels good against my legs on this warm Cuban night. We are in the corner of the living room…