Archives of Relationships

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 […]
10 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 […]
1 year 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 […]
1 year 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 […]
1 year 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 […]
1 year 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 […]
2 years 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 […]
2 years ago

Meeting IRL: An afternoon with a stranger from social media

By Jasmine Jones At some point during college, I followed Emma Fritsche on Instagram. I can’t remember exactly when. I click so many profiles in such a short amount of time, I don’t realize I’m following someone until their photo shows up in my feed, and I think, “Who is this person?” I’d like to […]
2 years ago

Charlotte Craig Meets Charlotte Craig: A story of two people connecting

By Jasmine Jones Charlotte Craig walks into a restaurant to meet Charlotte Craig. No, it’s not the start of a “person walks into a bar” joke. It’s also not the set-up for a science fiction story in which a character meets a clone of themselves and has to battle their own identity. This is a […]
2 years ago

What’s Left Behind

By Amanda Flinn A Mother’s Day Reflection My chest tightens as a lump forms in my throat. It’s a rushing flood of emotion quickly becoming      familiar.  Typically, I ride the wave, knowing this, too, shall pass.   But today is different.   Scanning the room, I count the tiles on the wall. Then, […]
3 years ago