I learned to ask for what I needed at work—and ended up being hired while in labor
February 2018 was not my best month. At 32 weeks pregnant, I tripped on a curb while crossing a busy intersection in Manhattan and instinctively put my arms out to break my fall and protect my growing belly. As soon as my right wrist hit the light post I heard the snap.
My Brother Was Killed in Afghanistan. He Became Real to Me Again in Quarantine, TIME
our weeks after my brother Ben’s funeral in 2009, the Army returned his belongings in carefully packed boxes, some still caked in sand and dust. In one was a black velvet bag with a black ribbon that contained the items he’d held in his pockets that day: an Altoid box that I had decorated and filled with family photos, and a poem by Brian Andreas that was read at our brother Sam’s wedding. He’d laminated the poem with Scotch tape, and though the edges were frayed and ripped, miraculously it was still legible.