It was just supposed to be a quick stop. Mom needed time to check prices, I needed to kill time, and the Yamaha store practically begged me to sit down with its glossy black pianos and polished keys. I’ve never been a prodigy or anything—I just play when I’m thinking too hard. Or when I need to forget something. So I picked a bench, cracked my knuckles, and let my fingers do what they always do when I’m not trying to impress anyone. A melody from memory. Not from a book or a lesson—just something I’ve always played since I…
Author: World Wide
Most days, Bravo leaps into the cruiser before I’ve even opened the second door. He’s a machine when it comes to routine—vest on, check. Seat harness clipped, check. Look out the window like he owns the streets? Absolutely. But today… he just sat there. Rigid. Watching me. Not growling, not scared—just staring. “Bravo, up,” I said, patting the seat. Nothing. I tried again. “Let’s go, partner.” Still nothing. It threw me. This dog has charged into burning buildings, sniffed out a body in the middle of a swamp, and literally dragged me out of the line of fire once—once—when my…
I was running on two hours of sleep, a lukewarm gas station coffee sloshing in the cupholder of my beat-up Corolla, and the kind of patience that frays thin around the edges and snaps without warning. My daughter, Hazel, was strapped into the car seat behind me, red-faced and howling as though the world had personally wronged her. Maybe it had. Maybe I had. We’d been up all night. I’d tried everything—rocking, swaying, shushing, singing that ridiculous giraffe song she usually giggled at. I even tried playing static on my phone. It sounded like ghosts screaming in a tunnel and…
I’m a widowed mom raising a 13-year-old son. Since my husband passed, I’ve been working two jobs just to give him some kind of comfort. It hasn’t been easy, but I do my best. The other day, while cleaning his room, I found $3,250 in his piggy bank! That same night, he told me he’d be going to a classmate’s birthday party after school. Something felt off, so I called the boy’s mom — turns out there was no party planned. At that moment, I knew I had to follow him the next day. And let me tell you —…
Rebecca had been my neighbor since childhood. The sweetest woman — always baking cookies for the neighborhood kids, always there with a kind word. She never married and never had kids, but she felt like family. Two months ago, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. They gave her weeks. I checked on her often, helping however I could. Then, last Saturday, as I was watering my flowers, my phone rang. Rebecca’s voice was barely a whisper. “Maggie… please, come. Urgently.” Something in her tone sent chills down my spine. I dropped everything and ran to her house. She lay in…
I never expected my life to change that day. Raising five kids alone has been tough since Mark passed away from a heart attack two years ago. The night I got the call is etched in my mind; the paramedics tried everything, but he was gone, leaving me with our children and a house full of memories. Since then, I’ve barely kept up with school runs, cooking, cleaning, and comforting my kids. I had no time to grieve—only to survive. Bills piled up, and despite my best efforts, an eviction notice arrived. I had no way to pay, and we…
In a blatant display of disloyalty, three Senate Republicans contradicted the rest of the party’s senators in a vote that almost derailed President Trump’s tariff strategy, with the ruling coming in at 49-49 and Republicans narrowly avoiding contradicting the president. For context, on April 30, 2025, the Senate responded to President Trump’s recently introduced global tariff strategy with a vote that would have reversed the tariffs imposed on Canada, which several Senate Republicans — Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), favored, going against the rest of their party and the president himself in…
A new statewide poll reveals that a significant majority of Maine voters would prefer longtime U.S. Senator Susan Collins not to run for another term in 2026. According to the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, 71% of respondents believe Collins should step down after her current term ends, while just 21% support her seeking re-election. The poll included a broad range of voters, with 84% of Democrats, 67% of independents, and 57% of Republicans expressing opposition to another term. First elected in 1996, Collins has built a reputation as a centrist willing to cross party lines, particularly on contentious…
I was married at eighty and was thrown out by my granddaughter, so I decided I could no longer put up with the disrespect. Together with my new husband Harold, we came up with a bold plan to give her a lesson she would never forget, which resulted in a showdown that would permanently alter our family dynamic. I never imagined that I would be narrating this tale, but here we are. Margaret here, and I turned eighty this past April. I was living in a little room in the home of my granddaughter Ashley. Though it was little, I…
