by Laura Landgraf | Jun 14, 2019 | Opinion
I am 6 today. The old farmhouse is filled with the scent of cinnamon and maple syrup. French toast is my birthday request. I dress with care and clumsily tie a ribbon in my ponytail. A shiver of anticipation tickles my tummy on my way to the stairs. I wish there was a...
by Laura Landgraf | May 10, 2019 | Opinion
Here’s to us. Here’s to creating a life around the hollow left by their inability to mother. Here’s to loving our own children fiercely and well, despite all odds. Here’s to defying the limits our parents and our childhood tried to set. Here’s to life, to love, to...
by Laura Landgraf | Apr 30, 2019 | Opinion
The paddock smelled of dung and leather. Excitement quivered through me as I adjusted the riding helmet. I was to take my first formal jumping lesson in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, English style. Mengustu’s ears twitched, perhaps remembering the Emperor’s barns, from which...
by Laura Landgraf | Mar 8, 2019 | Opinion
Brandy was petite, with fiery red hair, a generous laugh, a quick tongue, an agile mind. A spitfire. She fairly sizzled with energy, this woman I first met over the phone when I called the game on my child-molesting dad. I had waited until my children were in school...
by Laura Landgraf | Feb 28, 2019 | Opinion
Pope Francis compares child sexual abuse to human sacrifice. Think about that for a moment. The comparison is appropriate. But it’s worse than that. We who were abused by leaders in the church continue to live. We didn’t die of our injuries on the altar of sacrifice....
