ESSAY Maybe she stood by him no matter what, because she’d suffered enough heartache. She married her childhood sweetheart and had my brother and me before things fell apart. Her father, who had meant everything to her, died tragically in the projects almost a decade ago. Bernard was her one and only son, and even though it could happen, she didn’t want to believe she could lose him too.
Heavy Lifting
Catina Bacote
Originally from New Haven, Connecticut, Catina Bacote lives in New York City. Her essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, Gettysburg Review, TriQuarterly, December Magazine, Gulf Coast, The Common, Southern California Review, Prairie Schooner, and the anthology This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home. She is a 2021-2022 Jerome Hill Artist and American Association of University Women Fellow. She teaches creative writing at St. John's University and facilitates workshops at the Flatiron Writers Room.