When my dad was a teenager in the late 1950s, he used to work as a dishwasher at a Mexican restaurant that was near the local cemetery. To get to work, he could either walk the long way around the cemetery, which was twice as far, or cut straight through it. More often than not, he’d opt to go through the cemetery.

“The Old St. Philomena’s Hospital”

In the August of 2012 my dad killed himself. Earlier in the year he’d had open heart surgery and was never quite the same after. Then he broke his jaw and a business partner screwed him over in a major way. He’d struggled with mental health issues for years but all those things combined broke his spirit. In July it…

And here’s another tale from my mom’s time in the lab:

I have some STRONG OPINIONS about titles. I’ve been reading this from the beginning. Back in the beginning, Anna North or Dodai Stewart or Erin Gloria Ryan or whomstever (all excellent hosts of these spooky proceedings) would read through the comments and GIVE stories shared in the comments a title. Their titles were…

“Tales from an ER Laboratory”

You’re lucky you still have all of your organs. 

“The Back Room”

Not sure if anyone will find this scary, but it certainly freaked me out at the tender age of 8...

The two cottages were built by my grandfather on the second to last lot at the end of the road. Out the back (front? we never could decide) of the cottages was a view of the lake which was the core of most…

I told this story here years ago, but I was reminiscing with my son the other night and was reminded of what happened when we lived in our former house.

So I’m a dude, and a couple years back I went on a Tinder date with a woman who had just joined the app. She seemed normal at first, but after talking for an hour or two in person she started to give off that vibe that some isolated homeschooled kids have (not that it’s a bad thing), but basically like they haven’t…

I’m coming out of Jez retirement for this. It’s the mooooooooooost wonderful tiiiiiiiiiiiime of the year!

When I was fourteen, I had a super creepy dream. In the dream, I was walking down the upstairs hallway of my house heading towards my bedroom. It was dark. In my mind I just kept having this sense of dread and death. As I entered my room, I saw uncovered feet at the end of my bed, which I thought was odd because I…

scissoring lyric is awkward at best

Maybe but there’s no guarantee a child born to a parent who is 20 or 30 will not also watch said parent die when child is a teen or early adult. And I’m guessing not many of those kids are thinking “wow I wish I’d never been born cause having an elderly parent die on me when I’m a teen is the worst.”

Thank you for your thoughtful and beautifully written response! This is helpful and I still have quite a bit of thinking to do myself.

So many feelings for the Jay-Z clip. I just came out to my parents a couple months ago - pretty late at 27 years old. I am still trying to figure out what I can say or feel comfortable saying about my life, having a partner, and how to come out to people, friends, and family who have known me for years but not known…

Not knowing exactly where I was going beforehand would give me massive anxiety.

Also you can’t raise kids for food. Takes too long I’m hungry now not 11 years from now Jaydhen!

I’ve been one and had one, and that picture is of two girls who are not hugging the creep with his arms around them. They could easily put their arms around him, but they are keeping space between them with their arms.

as an adopted daughter, no, that DOESNT MAKE IT LESS CREEPY.