The Rio Grande Valley gets its magic from residents like her—those who believe in the blessedness of time and space.
Family
Across Texas, Santa is staying jolly this year with contact-free visits, drive-through light displays, and more pandemic-proof festivities.
The ofrenda we build to honor loved ones will include not only our distant past but also the very sorrow that we’re living through now.
The border city treated my family with care and invited us to find community there.
A Houston poet laureate believes that outrage by any other name is hope, and protest is its ultimate demonstration.
When my mother died, she left behind hundreds of items that my family might need if civilization goes south. Deciding what to do with them forced me to weigh the demands of the present and the future.
Teaching our three-year-old to use the bathroom has added structure to hours that feel like days, and days that stretch on like weeks.
“I guess the pandemic didn’t exactly end my marriage. It just revealed that it no longer really existed.”
Shortly after Holly Allen fell ill with COVID-19, she learned that her mother had died. At home in Fort Worth, she grieved in isolation, watching her mother’s funeral online.
A reflection on family and home, on the heels of my parents retiring from their longtime business.
When her former student was found wandering the streets a decade after she’d last seen him, Michell Girard immediately agreed to take him in. Then she decided to do far more, including give him the Christmas he’d never had.
My father always pampered his pets. So when he fell ill and moved in with us, it was no surprise that his corgi came to rule our home. What I didn’t expect was for Trilby to care for me after Dad was gone.
Critics of the forthcoming transformation of the state’s child welfare system worry about the new model’s lack of transparency. Legislators are running out of time to introduce greater safeguards.
I've struggled to keep my grandma and aunt with me since their deaths. But this year, I decided to honor their memories—and show them my life as an adult—by making my first día de los muertos altar.
Texas leads the country in hot-car deaths of children. Was Michael Thedford a horrible father, or did he make a mistake any parent could make?
My mom’s handwritten notes were an abiding feature of my childhood. They offered wisdom, encouragement, and comfort—and they continued to arrive long after her death.
A harrowing journey through Houston’s health care system offers an inside look at why so many women are dying after giving birth.
Montannah Kenney became the youngest girl to climb the mountain two months before her eighth birthday.
How an African-American family managed to rise to prominence during the height of Jim Crow-era segregation.
Returning to my devastated hometown, I found my friends and family putting on a brave face in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
The celebrated Plano novelist on how the Columbine massacre and growing up in ”The Suicide Capital of America” influenced his new book, 'Oliver Loving.'
Millions of Texans will feel the impact of changes to individual tax breaks, health care penalties, and property tax deductions.
"Good news, kids! The Astros have the chance to win the World Series tonight. Oh, and you're not going trick or treating."
The storm left hundreds of thousands of households without homes. Many are still looking.
Photos and memories from the public pool that brings a city together.
If the age of the flash mob proposal is upon us once more, we’re kinda here for it.
My son was jobless, directionless, and apartmentless. So when he decided to join the Army, we were just glad he was out of the house. What we didn’t know was just how much the military would change him—and us.
Twenty years ago, a brown-skinned boy was shot to death near the Rio Grande. What fate awaits my own son?
With their forthcoming EP, the singer-songwriters seek to raise awareness for an issue that hits both of them close to home.
Inundated with homework and distracted by their devices, our youngest Texans (and their anxiety-prone parents) are at risk of losing their connection to our state’s many natural wonders. Here’s how to untame the next generation.
For years, Austin drivers have passed by a familiar mural on North Lamar that recalls the fatal consequences of drinking and driving. But Mary Boyd and Bruce David Johnson's story isn't just theirs—it's the community's.
They have fled war-torn countries, given up livelihoods, and left behind possessions and family for the safety of a foreign world of cowboy hats and Walmarts. But the refugees who land in Amarillo’s Astoria Park have an ally who understands their confusion and loss: a 64-year-old former teacher named Miss Evelyn.
She died twenty years ago, when I was ten. Yet even as the distance grows, I've found a way to keep her close.
Forty years ago I built forts on Bird Creek, raced at the roller rink, and watched my dad run for mayor of Temple.
Who needs the playoffs? After years (and years and years) of heartache, Houston has fallen for the Astros all over again.
How Chip and Joanna Gaines are renovating Waco’s reputation, one home at a time.
The scion of one of Laredo’s first families wants to build a mammoth landfill on his ranch. But the opposition is fierce and vocal—and backed by none other than his uncle and his cousin.
Welcome to Camp Honey Creek for girls, where the years tick by but time stands still.
My all-time favorite hamburger came from the Country Burger, my family's beloved neighborhood restaurant in Plano.
I never knew my father, a decorated World War II pilot who died before I was born. But a trek at age 67 to the site where his airplane crashed brought me closer to him than I’d ever dared hope.
Getting wet, getting scared, and getting my family a little closer to Texas at Schlitterbahn.
Guns have always been part of my life, and I’ve never forgotten the lesson I learned the first time I fired one.