Secret Summers

MALIBU—My daddy always said… fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. He wasn’t big on giving second chances, although he was the most forgiving father and gave me millions of them…. Yet to others, never a second chance. I remember our biggest argument was right after my mum died. I was gutted. In 90 days,...

WRIGHTWOOD—Word on the street is if you want to really have fun on the slopes, avoid Mountain High. However, I had visited before and besides the icy and slippery slopes at times, I wondered why people said that. After all, it is close to Los Angeles and you can often get there without chains. So what is the big...

BEVERLY HILLS—When you’re deaf people seem to push anything “deaf” on you. For years I have been nagged to watch "Switched at Birth," mostly by my friends who were either on the show or supporting it. I thought more than twice about approaching this topic since I didn’t want to be a naysayer to a breakthrough show on the telly...

UNITED STATES—Recently while experiencing some trust issues with my boyfriend where it got rather heated with quite a bit of emotion. He denied doing something that I was pretty sure he had done. However, we are not married and if he chooses to do what he did and lie about it, it’s his life not mine. We lost track of...

BEVERLY HILLS—It’s 6:00 a.m. as I sit here in a cold, dark, lonely flat with my heart shattered into countless pieces. They tell me I’ve checked-out again. I’d have to agree that is the best phrase to use for my disconnection from the world. I think I’m back, at least temporarily, thanks to waking up to my fluffy-faced German Shepherd...

LAUREL CANYON—My mum used to say, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?" Of course, she was being facetious. Her intention was to get me to think for myself and not follow my friends’ poor choices, or more specifically, the modern American culture. People thought I copied everything Tara did. She had a tattoo on her wrist. My mum...

Editor's Note: This is Part Two of a Three-Part Series. Click here to read Part One. LAUREL CANYON—As expected, Tara's mother contacted me that Saturday morning, but our conversation didn't go as expected. She asked if I was with Tara and I told her that I wasn't but had been expecting her call. We were both confused, as it was Tara had...

LAUREL CANYON—Tara was my best friend. People always said our age difference didn't matter because I was wise beyond my years and she was chronologically beyond hers. We made a perfect pair! We were twins. We thrived doing girly things. We loved hiking, dieting, and fawning over adorable animals. We both had curly, waist-long hair that we sometimes put in 100...

Editor's Note: This is Part Four of a four-part series. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 are instrumental in understanding this article. MALIBU—We were getting closer by the day to reversing brain damage in my father. Although I felt magically guided in some ways, I found myself hitting my head against the wall in others. It was months of witnessing a miraculous statin cure in...

Editor's Note: This is Part Three of a four-part series. Part 1 and Part 2 are instrumental in understanding this article. MALIBU—My young, fit, healthy father was the strongest, most powerful man I have ever known. After joining Kaiser and getting an initial physical, he was prescribed statins and immediately suffered horrifying side effects. For two years, doctors vehemently denied the...