Catherine Gigante-Brown

Food can be more than nourishing; it can be healing.

Even though there’s no shortage of condoms in the Netherlands, it’s easier if you have your own birth control. Even if your trip isn’t a booty call, you never know! And if desire hits, you’ll be ready with your favorite type of BC and brand.

I’m a firm believer that Tiny Kindnesses can change the world, one sweet, loving gesture at a time.

I try. I really do. But whenever I attempt to embrace my husband Peter’s Cuban culture, I always screw up.

All bets were off after 9/11. In a twisted way, it proved to me that worry was fruitless. No one ever saw the terrorist attacks coming.

That’s the thing about being a breast cancer survivor — it’s always there: it never goes away. The scars, the fear that lurks in the back of your mind like a boogeyman. You’re going along nicely, living your merry life, and you’re fine, until you’re not.

Were you going to run into that cute guy John Williams on the way home? Would you see Anne Marie by the lockers and sort out what to do for the weekend? It was hit-or-miss, and that was the beauty of it. The breath-holding chance of it all. Now, our kids’ friends are as close as a keyboard stroke away. It’s too easy.

We’ve pieced ourselves back together in a patchwork quilt of ragged emotions. The aftermath of 9/11 wasn’t easy for us, yet it was much easier than for some. People standing 50 feet away from Peter didn’t come home that night; he did.

"Remember, this isn’t just happening to you, it’s happening to moms everywhere. It’s not your fault — "

The hell with his elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases. Iambic pentameter is cruel and unusual punishment.