Catherine Gigante-Brown

Having someone steal my cancer history and co-opt it for their first-person Facebook blog is unbelievably violating. Somehow, it feels almost as invasive as my mastectomy.

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

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

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

Even when I explained to my son that he came from a long line of short people, it didn’t help. David still felt bad about being small. How could a five-year-old possibly get this type of size-shaming message? From other people, mostly insensitive adults. They gave him the idea that bigger was somehow better.

Why do we venerate individuality in adults but condemn it in children?

I realized my father was from a generation that never said those three little words. He was saying he loved me without them. But I didn't realize it then.

I’m sure you’ll find it a delicious and well-stocked place. There are just a few rules

"Sometimes David wore his hair spiked like a cockscomb. Others, he wore it feathery like a baby chick. He wore his Mohawk to summer camp (exchanging encouraging head chucks with another older camper who sported one, too) and even to Vacation Bible School—no judgment there."

Being a little bit chubby is better than being a lot dead.