Sasee Magazine

My husband feels like a failure because we haven’t won the lottery. Every other day, usually in the morning, he will say, “Well, we didn’t win the lottery last night.” He’ll then sigh and sulk for the next few minutes. I have to reassure him that I love him and tell him not to take [...]

In the winter of 1975, my parents divorced. My mother had a chronic heart condition that made it impossible for her to work and the two of us couldn’t quite make ends meet that first year on our own. In previous years, Christmas had been a grand event in our home. Money had always been [...]

I cried when my baby brother was born. There was nothing wrong with him or my mama, but when my grandma told me my youngest sibling was a boy, I burst into tears. I knew my mother and father would be happy because they had been hoping for a boy, but I was decimated. I [...]

If you’ve ever been with someone who’s near their transition from this life to the next, you’ll understand what I’m about to say: There’s an aura of peace that surrounds a dying person. There’s a confidence and an omniscient wisdom. “Don’t forget me.” Of all the words my grandmother spoke during her 91 years, I [...]

I picked up the box and was shocked by how heavy it was – now I was really intrigued. All I really wanted to do was rip it open right then and there, but agonizing as it was to resist the burning curiosity surging through me, I remembered the frozen goods defrosting in the car [...]

Once upon a time, two children decided to go shopping for Christmas presents for their parents. Of course, this was encouraged by the parents. Who doesn’t like a surprise? At the time J.C. Penney’s came up with a brilliant marketing concept by creating a dollar store for children. This “store” was fenced in and decorated [...]

My dad used to have poker parties. Every couple of months he would pay my sisters and I a dollar to clean the basement so he and his cronies could sit at the round Formica top table, covered with a green cloth, and play One Eyed Jack, Man with the Ax, Pair of Deuces Takes [...]

I have five children. Three of them I acquired the normal way – nine months of heartburn and hemorrhoids, followed by no less than 17 hours of unpleasant sensations in my abdominal area. But looking back, I count those days as some of the best in my life. (Motherhood is funny that way.) My other [...]

My grandmother, Mammie, has lived alone for over twenty-five years. But you wouldn’t know it to look inside her fridge. On any given day, one might find several types of meat, two heads of cabbage, potatoes, carrots and a few bricks of cheese. Usually, she has a specific meal in mind when she purchases these [...]

My church has always co-sponsored a community Thanksgiving Eve service with the local Baptist church. For many years, I sang in the choir during the services when my church was the host, and I had simply thought of the service as part of the holiday routine. We sang the traditional hymns, “We Gather Together,” and [...]