Personal Stories Archives - Karyn Cantees Stagg

When God Steps In

When your world turns upside down, inside out, in one long day, where do you turn, how do you cope? I hope you’ll read my harrowing...

A Valentine’s Day tribute to one of the women who helped form me. And a wonderful love story. My Aunt Jeanette was a significant part...

A few weeks ago, I was on the beach scanning the wide expanse of the ocean. This enormous body of water, the very first thing on planet...

Grandchildren are the delight of many of our lives. I’ve never given birth, but through marriage have a grandson, Matthew, who rocks...

There’s a scream that if you hear it, you’ll never forget it. Afraid that whatever caused it may be coming for you. I was a child when...

Deep in the heart of Appalachia are my roots. I don’t often visit the town of my childhood, now less than half of the 6,700 census...

I’m not a trailblazer. Put me in the woods with a machete, expecting me to clear a path for others to follow, and I’d probably be...

Hallelujah for new beginnings! The last story in the trilogy about financial loss during the 1980s. There are some defeats more triumphant...

In 1981, I was living in a house I couldn’t have dreamed of in the 1950s of my youth. Maybe I could have plunked down fifty cents and...

We lost our home, houses, an airplane, and, oh yes, my mother. Nearly our sanity. And every time I thought things couldn’t get worse they...