parents belongings - Toni Lepeska

New Life for Old Stuff

What a waste land. A dirty, wet road led past 15-foot-tall piles of car parts, discarded machinery and crushed appliances. I situated the truck bed under a crane that dwarfed the vehicle. And me. As a menacing claw reached inside and crunched my parents’ old dryer in its grip, I leaned away from the rear …

Details Important After Death

All this time, I thought I’d given the funeral home the wrong lipstick color. I never was much of one to wear makeup, though I’d grown up seeing my mother paste it on before the rare occasions she’d leave the house. So I didn’t pay attention to her lip shade. Itty bitty nonessential details gain …