From the Publishers

In the realm of falling apart, dealing with the loss of a loved one is a common theme. Most of the pieces recently submitted to our site offer unique, often tender perspectives on this subject.

As always, we invite your responses to the writings, as well as stories and poems that tell of your own experience (see Submission Procedures and Guidelines). The mission of Falling-Apart.net …and Picking Up the Pieces is to embrace our common humanity and provide a place for sharing the pathos, despair, humor, courage, inspiration, and triumph we experience in our moments of setback and resiliency.

All the best,
Bob David and John Wong

Currently Featured Stories

Nat Warren-White comes home from sailing in the Pacific to be with family as his mother faces death. In The Tombstone, the men of the family work hard to honor the wishes of Nat’s father.

In Napping with Frances, Winona W. Wendth is not moved these days by reports of illness and death amongst the elderly; but her feelings are suddenly different upon a visit to her cat’s vet.

In Look Both Ways, Damnit!, after an accident takes the life of the man Brenda Mulkerin has loved for 13 years, she forms an unusual bond with the man’s wife.

Trailblazer tells the story of how a fellow inmate of Troy Bridges sets a humane precedent in the Alabama prison system as he faces terminal cancer.

Reverend Dr. Hugh Tudor-Foley expresses gratitude to the many he has encountered in his journey to overcome alcoholism in Gifts of Recovery.

James Boer succinctly serves up a Buddhist perspective on when bad news hits in Falling Together.

In Regina, Wilfredo Olmo-Santiago describes sweetly, simply, and at length how, from the confines of prison, he married and cared for the woman he loved for 22 years after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Painting Out of Sorrow depicts in words and paintings Claudine Bing’s journey to overcome her grief over the loss of her mother.

Favorite from the Archives

The Other Woman

Painter Ejay Khan discovers her poet husband is a crack cocaine addict. She faces this daunting challenge with courage and hope.

…My husband was a charismatic and highly gifted performance poet; all who met and heard him desired to be in his company. He was as comfortable on stage with a microphone before a crowd of people as he was lying on the couch reading a book. I was not. While I enjoyed interacting with all the people who came to the gallery and Center on a one-to-one basis, I had terrible stage fright. His return to active addiction and repeated disappearances on performance nights would force me to take over as emcee in his absence, recite his poetry (which I knew by heart), and introduce the featured and open mic readers. Read the whole story…

Tell Us What You Think

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