I created the video above, including the music, which was shown at my mother’s funeral. I spoke the following words to all the people who came to say goodbye to Mom on April 15. Today is the one-year anniversary of Mom’s head-on collision. I’d like to remember this day with the positives Mom contributed to the world. I hope you can forgive any typos that remain.
Author: Irene Page 2 of 48
Note: I wrote this on April 15, 2017. Other than my boss’s boss, no one has ever seen it. It feels pertinent to me today to share it, especially in light of those in power and when you consider how much we are told that bullies go away after high school. They don’t. We are constantly fighting against them. Talking to the bully and asking for help didn’t work for me, so I wrote this letter and gave it to the boss’s boss.
Little yellow bastard outside my front door.
There are days I have thoughts in my head I want to write about, but can’t flesh them out into anything more meaningful than a sentence or two. Sometimes it’s because of the PTSD. Sometimes I can’t find the right words to express myself. Sometimes someone else said it better. Sometimes there isn’t anything more to say.
The wind picked up at the end of the No Kings protest, but it was still a good day and a good protest.
I’ve been to protests before, but it was always as a reporter. Today was the first time I attended a protest for myself.
The military has put the U.S. Marines into a “prepared to deploy status” in case they are needed to “augment support” in Los Angeles. If they are activated and they go, you will be witnessing the beginnings of a police state in America. We are a hair’s breadth away from it. This is not okay.
Asparagus for sale at Walmart.
Note: This is an extended version of the 771-word column I wrote for the Star-Herald on February 17, 2016. My columns at the newspaper were limited to 800 words. I didn’t have the chance to write exactly what I wanted at the time and each time I tell the story, people want more details. This is the full version I wanted to write then and finally had the time to sit down and complete.
Union soldiers entrenched along the west bank of the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg, Virginia (111-B-157)
I see the cracks in the foundations of my country and wonder if anything I do, if the words I write might help stop it from crumbling.
Katie and Irene show off Gering and Scottsbluff from atop the Scotts Bluff National Monument. Photo by Katie Bradshaw.
I haven’t wanted to sit down and write anything since my mom passed away on April 2. Each time I get behind the keyboard, I get sad. Then, the words no longer come. Added to all this, my country has fallen into fascism. I am at a loss of what to do, where to go, and what direction I should be taking.
Throughout all of this, however, there has been the kindness of others who have reached out to me and I want to highlight that instead of the devastation that seems to be surrounding me.
It has been a harrowing nine months since my mother was in a head-on collision. Our lives were forever changed on July 15, 2024. Today, her suffering is over.