From the Caregiver's HAErt
— Danita LaShelle Jones

“You always take the same way home,” my mom said to my father. My dad glanced at my mother, smiled, and kept driving. “Habit,” he replied. We were on our way home from school, and my father was taking our usual route. My mother chuckled. My father was and is…

“But the most important rule … never feed him after midnight.” That was part of the ominous and infamous instructions for owning a mogwai in the 1984 thriller “Gremlins.” In the movie, Billy receives a pet for Christmas that comes with confusing and complicated verbal instructions. The cute little creature,…

Many years ago, my family got word that a new organization was putting on a street festival in the city. Because it fell on a day when everyone was free, we planned to attend solely for the spectacular fireworks show promised at the end. With about 10 minutes to spare…

“How are our lives going?” John asks. “Are we rich?” Ben immediately follows. In a hilarious prerecorded video for “Saturday Night Live,” comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy presents a scenario in which future Ben, John, and Martin come to deliver a grave warning to the present-day troupe about the end…

During the 1992-93 AFC Wild Card playoff game, the Houston Oilers faced off against the Buffalo Bills. In a twist on irony, the game was a rematch of that particular season’s ender, which the Oilers won. Adding to the mounting anxiety for Bills fans and players, their starting quarterback, Jim…

For lack of a better phrase, and at the risk of sounding cliché, a summer job for a teenager is a time-honored tradition. It’s such a well-known trope that shows like “Saved by the Bell,” “The O. C.,” and “Stranger Things” have entire seasons dedicated to following teenagers as they…

The tickle around my uvula gave me pause. I knew the feeling almost immediately. And it couldn’t have been happening at a worse time. There’s a strange phenomenon in my house when it comes to illness. Although we’ve reached a point where the flu isn’t passed around our house…

This column will be a little different from the ones I usually write. Normally, I’ll start with a story that celebrates the underdog, the person who had to come from behind to achieve a victory. By the end, I’ll have tied the tale neatly into our hereditary angioedema journey with…

One of the amazing perks of the organization I work for is that it often partners with the theater production company I own. Prior to the director’s tenure there, I’d been commissioned to produce many plays for him over the last 14 years. So, when he started this new position…

“I have a very serious question to ask you both,” our youngest son, whom we lovingly nicknamed Harambe, said as he entered our room. My husband and I paused our random wind-down tasks and gave him our full attention. “There’s a couple that’s going to a park,” Harambe began. “They…

Adult me would love to go back in time and stop the moment, but 7-year-old me was determined to snap what I thought was the most hilarious picture of my parents. During the summer of my eighth birthday, my parents took my sister and me to Walt Disney World. This…