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I am the youngest of eight girls. Yes, eight girls. We all became Christians in a Muslim country.My second-oldest sister, when she was in college in…
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On September 11, 1976, my father proposed to my mother just two days after meeting her on a bus in Brazil. He, an Indian scientist working at a Brazilian…
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When I was in school in Somalia, sometimes my parents would pick me up early before classes were done. We would wander through back streets and alleys –…
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I met my husband in Walmart. I was still new to the United States. I was in my late 20s and moved to Des Moines to be near my brothers after graduating…
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When I was 20 years old, I came out to my parents. It was in a small Häagen-Dazs shop in Madrid, where they had come to visit me during a semester…
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Wilma walked with an odd aluminum cane, a clear plastic handle grip like a tricycle’s and a four-pronged base for stability. She was old and had always…
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My first experience with travel was from Florence Crittenton to a foster home in November of 1959. Within a few months, I moved to a cattle ranch in…
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I could have known the instant I saw the eleven foot woman in a pink kimono, cherry red rouge, and dirty-blonde frizzed wig that my ringing in of the new…
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Fear of HeightsI looked at Jesse and then back at the 12-foot wall in front of me. I bent double, holding my stomach, and felt as if a hand were wringing…
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In the middle of the night, I was on my knees, staring into a scummy toilet, wishing I could purge the poison from my body and wondering when was the last…