Archives of Relationships

Michelle Mia Antallan: What have you been thinking lately?

Thank you for being the first early inspiration in my life; being the first grandchild allowed me to have all the perks (and favoritism, I think) to learn from you. I am very far away from home and you are getting older; I can’t stop thinking about having fears of you getting sick or something […]
5 months ago

Johniqua Fort: What have you been thinking about lately?

A timeless letter from your mama … I’ve started this letter over and over countless times. Few times on paper, several times in my head. A simple question of, “What is something you’ve been thinking about lately?” turns out to be not so simple, honestly, because I am always thinking about everything. If I had […]
5 months ago

Anwyn Suhr: What have you been thinking about lately?

Do you ever catch yourself getting lost in the past? It’s been a bad habit of mine lately. Today, I filmed a beautiful wedding in this old cathedral full of artwork, sculptures, intricate wood carvings. And as I observed each work, each Biblical painting, each deliberate carving of the sculptures, I found myself lost in […]
5 months ago

Leni Santoro: What have you been thinking lately?

Perhaps it is because spring has come that I have been thinking about when you were little and we would plant the garden together. Or perhaps it was seeing the way the sun shone on the grass after the early morning rain shower, releasing into the day a thousand small, shining glimmerings of a garden […]
5 months ago

Let’s Talk: Autumn Grim and Georganne Syler, public health

Autumn Grim, MPH, CPHA, began working at the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center in 2019. Prior to that, she had been with the Missouri Health Department for more than 20 years, where she worked as the epidemiologist program coordinator for the state. In 2023, she became the director of the Cape Girardeau County Public […]
8 months ago

Let’s Talk: Rodaina Nasreldin and Karla Cornelius, entrepreneurship

Karla Cornelius, owner of the coffee shop El Kolibri in Cape Girardeau, first met Rodaina Nasreldin when Rodaina came into El Kolibri for a cup of coffee. They started talking and realized they had a lot in common: As Karla had been an exchange student from Mexico City at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) 25 […]
8 months ago

Let’s Talk: Tameka Randle and Rachael Long, community strengthening

Tameka Randle and Rachael Long work together daily with residents of South Cape and other partners and volunteers to transform the South Cape neighborhood through education, housing and wellness initiatives, using the Purpose Built Community model. Tameka works as the executive director of People Organized to Revitalize Community Healing (PORCH) and serves on the Missouri […]
8 months ago

Long-Distance Friendships: Maintaining deep connections in adulthood 

By Jasmine Jones  There is a specific sound: a low hum, a soft ding, an echo of a ring that I now associate with my two best friends.  It is not the sound of metal spoons colliding in my dishwasher in my usually-quiet studio apartment; it is the sound of Facebook Messenger. A notification.  When […]
8 months ago

Hand-me-downs: A lineage of women in my wardrobe

By Jasmine Jones Clothing is made up of lines: Threads weave into fabric. Pieces connect by stitches. Hems tidy the ends, neatly bordering wrists and ankles. Our wardrobes are piles and rows and drawers full of lines. In certain items — the hand-me-downs — another form of line exists: that of our lineage. These items […]
1 year ago

Becoming a Caregiver: Transitioning into caring for aging parents

By Amanda Flinn When Tina Moore of Sikeston, Mo., was attending nursing school, she had no idea how useful her skills would be in caring for her aging mother, Alice Smith, and her mother-in-law, Alma Moore. While the women entered her home at different times — Smith for the last two and a half years […]
1 year ago