I Was Just a Kid…and the Pavement is What Hurt the Most
I had a little Winnie the Pooh push car — the kind you straddle with your legs, scoot forward using your feet, and steer with handlebars. It was a cheap kind of freedom, that feeling of pushing forward down the sidewalk, pretending it was something bigger than it was. The sidewalk wasn’t in great shape…
I Was Just a Kid…Kindergarten
Five small streets from school — Nelson Elementary in Niles, Illinois. I walked there and back alone. It sounds strange now, but this was Gen X life: latchkey kids, street smarts by necessity, and a childhood spent mostly unaccompanied. Each street had a crossing guard. And one day, I met one named Allison. She was…
Living with Disability and Trauma: An Honest Account
Hi. I’m Allie. I’m 54, disabled, neurodivergent, a thyroid cancer survivor, a mother, and a woman who’s had to fight harder than most just to have the basics of peace, dignity, and safety. I’m not here to sugar-coat things — survival has been my full-time job for as long as I can remember.Nothing in my…
Fragments and Fire 