“I had a quirky childhood habit of sitting sideways on the toilet. It began, I surmise, in our Southeast San Diego house on Manos Drive, sometime after I turned five. Sitting side-saddle allowed me to look in the mirror and lose myself awhile. Perched there, I often acted out scenes from the day’s All My Children. I did a perfect Susan Lucci—if Lucci were to act entirely from a toilet seat.”

So begins my essay published on the shuttered The Establishment, an incredible website that lifted up often unheard voices. Fortunately, their work can now be found on Medium.

In “The Day My Father Shot My Mother,” I re-live the events that led my burgeoning adolescent self to re-adjust how I understood my mother.

You can read the whole essay by joining my Patreon, clicking on over The Establishment via Medium, or later by purchasing my book (not yet published).