Tina Newby

Original Date: Circa 2011 My brother Joe and I were in the bank parking lot, he had just returned from the ATM and I was admiring his beautiful new black Mustang. Freshly waxed and shined, it was looking sharp. Boy, was I jealous - not hateful jealous - I knew he worked hard for this and I was so glad for him to have his dream car (even if it was mine too). Two thugs came up supposedly to ask us a question but in my gut, I knew. They were bringing trouble. It didn’t take long to know this was true. Once they were within speaking distance, they both pulled handguns from the pockets of their hoodies.  We were ready to give them whatever they wanted. Take our wallets, take the car, whatever. Things are just things. But Joe was in good physical shape and had just returned from the gym, they saw him as a threat. I watched as they put a gun to his head and told him to get on his knees. There was no fight, no struggle - really there was no chance. The gunshot woke me from my nightmare. In...

Original Date: Winter/Early Spring 2006 Before I met my husband, I had fallen into a very dark place with my relationships. I was married for 7 years, spent about a year in a live-in relationship with a very horrible man who would lie, steal and manipulate me and moved from that into a series of very short lived less than fruitful relationships. I had found myself in a rut looking so hard for companionship and it had been costing me greatly. The following is a description of a life changing event that happened that helped to get me back into the church after an almost 20 year hiatus...please note, this is not a polished literary work. This is real honest to goodness play by play written at the time. ............................................................................................................... Sunday night I suffered, yet another, romantic let down. I wasn't anything too terrible, but I basically had my hopes up and it turned out to not be what I had expected. So I ...

Original date: Sometime around November 2002, Written in 2014 . Several years ago, I was living what seemed like an entirely different life. I was close to dying. In fact, I did not know it but was tempting death on a regular basis. You see, I had no idea of the danger I was putting myself into as I was a hard working single mom during the week and a ticking time-bomb of selfish rebellion on the weekend. I was at the end of a failed marriage and dealing with the thought that my mother was facing a very untimely and difficult death. My own duration on this earth was in question and I was determined to get all the satisfaction I could out of it. Night after night I was going to clubs, after hours clubs, parties, drinking until I could no longer walk, driving when I shouldn't be driving, and behaving in ways that expressed utter disrespect for myself, my child and other people that I love.  Sometimes, it was all I could do to stay awake and alert enough to keep my car on the road duri...

Original Date: April 13 2013 My mid afternoon nap was very blessed today.  Very blessed, indeed.  Read on. .................... My dad was about to sell the house I grew up in.  He was moving on with his life and the old homestead would be no more.  Looking for one last hurrah, I got his permission to invite some friends over for a little party.  I don't think he knew exactly what I was asking (probably because I didn't tell him) but he said yes and that was good enough for me.  The party preparation was really more of an extension of the clean up and move out process.  I didn't seem to be putting much effort into actually preparing for the party. I was more occupied with just opening up the space. No plans were being made for food, drink and other party needs. I didn't even invite very many people.  In fact, the only specific thing I was really getting ready for was preparing the garage for the evening's entertainment - a rock band. Not just any ...