When I was a kid, my mom worked as an art teacher on death row at California's San Quentin. She was eventually let go for refusing to wear her bullet-proof vest; for getting "too close" to the inmates. Sure, she was "too close."

Her boyfriend for many years was Robert...

The other morning as I sat on a plane awaiting takeoff, a flight attendant approached and asked me if I'd be so kind as to give up my seat. She pointed to the woman next to me: "She really wants to travel with her husband and we're completely booked."

The...

When I had my son at age 37, I figured I could give him the stability I could never give my daughter, born when I was still a teenager.

When she was born, I had an army-surplus backpack and my passport. "Poor little Gypsy baby," the nurses whispered as I...