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(Trigger warning: mention of suicide). Almost ten years ago now, my husband died by suicide. It was gruesome, and I found his body in our home. We were married two years and the suicide was a shock to everyone. I was both bereaved from the loss and deeply traumatized by finding the body. I was a mess. It was my job to divide up his possessions. I made boxes of his favorite things for his friends and family, saved a few things for myself, and liquidated the rest. My brother and my first husband weren’t particularly close, but they got along well enough. I gave my brother my first husband’s Rolex. I…

We’re a queer family living in a liberal bubble in a conservative state that struggles to take any advice on COVID safety. My daughter, who is two-and-a-half, has some unique health conditions that would make her vulnerable to complications should she ever get COVID. Consequently, when things shut down in 2020, we pulled her out of day care, my wife restructured their career to work at home, and we totally shut our lives down completely. We’ve had literally zero childcare or help from the time our daughter was seven months on. Two years into this pandemic, by taking every precaution, doing all our shopping online, cutting our own hair, shooting up every…

“My 23-year-old sister has OCD, which comes with overwhelming intrusive thoughts and anxiety. I have been with her every step of the way since we were kids. “

My partner takes our son to soccer practice on the weekends, and I have recently become concerned that he’s interested in the mother of one of the other kids. He is also good friends with the same kid’s dad (her husband). Their son had a birthday party recently and my partner took our son. While my partner was checking in (via text) to see how I was, he said that all the other parents had dropped off their kids and left, leaving only my partner, the birthday boy, and that boy’s parents. He said that he was sitting at the table with this boy’s mom while all the kids played. The dad…

I am a mid-40 female with a sister who is three years older than I. We were blessed by our dad with a weekend retreat home just a 90-minute drive from the city in which we both live. Three couples, including my father and his wife, my sisters’ family, and my family share the home, respectively. In the one year that “we” have owned the home, my sister has twice had a girls weekend to which I have not been invited. She invites mutual friends of ours and only tells me who she invited if I pointedly ask. I am hurt by her snub, which I feel is intentional. We live in…

I’m a 31-year-old female in a five-year relationship with a 28-year-old man with whom I have lived for the past three years. For the first couple of years, he brought up marriage frequently and how much he wanted us to build a life together. It freaked me out a little early on because I wasn’t there yet, but I could still definitely see myself marrying him one day. Then this talk cooled, and life marched on. The most “life building” we’ve done is getting a cat together. Fast forward to last year, and his younger brother gets married. Then my sister gets engaged, followed shortly by my brother. I’m super happy for…