By LEONORA LAPETER ANTON, published in Tampa Bay Times
The boy was only two days old when his mother slipped out of the hospital. Hours later, he shuddered and convulsed, his body going into withdrawal from the opioids he had grown used to in her womb. A couple from Georgia arrived. They had supported the baby's biological mother financially during her pregnancy. But they didn't know about the drugs. They watched him scream and wail for three hours. Then they left, too. Those first few days, the baby had multiple seizures. Nurses peered at him from outside his incubator. They swaddled him tightly in a blanket and gave him morphine and methadone.
By JONAH ENGEL BROMWICH, published in New York Times (Metered Paywall - 1 to 2 articles a month)
Harvey and Irma Schluter have been married for 75 years. He turned 104 in July; she will be 93 in November. They vividly remember many of the major events of the 20th century, from her first time spotting an airplane, during the Great Depression, to his wonder at watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. In a recent phone interview, Mrs. Schluter even recalled the weather near her home in Spokane, Wash., on the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. (Cool and cloudy.) But never before have they seen two major hurricanes bearing their names threaten the United States.
Virginia's Never ending History
By GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER, published in Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The opening line still hurts across the years. “Dear Mother — I am here a prisoner of war & mortally wounded.” John Winn Moseley was writing home from the Gettysburg battlefield on July 4, 1863. He was a 30-year-old Confederate from Alabama being cared for by his Yankee captors. “I can live but a few hours more at farthest,” he wrote. “I was shot fifty-yards of the enemy’s line. They have been extremely kind to me.” Moseley died the next day. His letter — on delicate blue paper, stained with what might be blood — made it to his mother in Buckingham County, Va., and the family kept it ever after. Now it has come to light in a trove of Civil War documents that the State Library of Virginia discovered in a surprisingly straightforward way: It asked state residents to bring them out of their homes.
By DENISE M. WATSON, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
In the early 1770s, slave Rachel Findlay sued her master for her freedom. She knew the law. Her maternal grandmother had been an illegally enslaved Native American, and Findlay's mom likely had some African blood. Being a descendant of a Native American was one of the few circumstances under which blacks could sue to be emancipated.
tHe tHINGS pEOPLE dO
By REECE RISTAU, published in Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)
After carting the fifth and final wheelbarrow of pennies into the Lebanon Department of Motor Vehicles Wednesday, Nick Stafford could feel the burn in his arms. Winded, Stafford took a smoke break in the DMV’s parking lot. “I’m not used to lifting,” Stafford said. “These are heavy.”
By TAMMIE SMITH, published in Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Cas Overton knew she would not be able to get away from the violent raccoon that attacked her on the leg Saturday afternoon as she walked in Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden watching for birds. So she did what she had to do.
