RECOVERATI
Forlorn and resigned

Part III: The Center Cannot Hold

First and Foremost The day that Roe fell, our team launched into rapid response–some Def Con, DDay, hard core shit. I got a text message delivering The News around 10:15am, after which I choked down my first cup of coffee to sprint, while texting and emailing, to my office. We sent out alerts to Planned ...

Our positive pregnancy test

Part II: Pregnant Pause

Human to Host Pregnancy is the most metal thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I consciously decided that I was ready to become a mother–or more accurately, a host–to a living being for 40 weeks. Implicit in my decision was the understanding that my body would indeed change. I made the rookie mistake ...

NYT Headline when Roe v. Wade was overturned

Part I: Crossing the Invisible Line

Roe & Recovery In 12-step recovery meetings, it’s not uncommon to hear people share that it’s difficult for them to pinpoint the moment they crossed an invisible line with their drinking. I, like them, struggle with hazy memories that belie a level of disconnect I’m not sure I’ll ever understand. What I know for sure ...

Bowie Unseen by Gerald Fearnley

A Cloud of a Different Color

Who, me? My name is Lucy, and I am a recovering alcoholic.  Today I made the executive decision to write my experiences as a person relatively new to sobriety because it occurred to me that my truth could quite possibly help someone–or at the very least, provide some insight into a sometimes-nebulous way of life. ...

Kind of Blue

I am a person you want around when there is an emergency. Beginning in the early aughts as a camp counselor, I have always been the designated 9-1-1 caller in the event of a medical scare. In my lifetime, I think I’ve called 9-1-1 at least half a dozen times. Anxiety Bites When you’re anxious ...

Silas as an infant

The Whole Nine

If I were to tell my friends of 10 or 15 years ago that I would become somebody’s mother, I’d be met with dirision and dismissal. Not that they would try to be mean, but I don’t think those friends could have ever pictured me as a parent based on the person I was to ...

Headshots of Lucy Hartman (L) and Tarina Keene (R)

Richmond Independent Radio Interview

Subject: Abortion in Virginia, what’s at stake during election season, working as an abortion doula Interview originally posted on article page, July 7, 2022: Women & Politics: Leading Reproduction Rights in Virginia

Mother holding a newborn

A Mother to Be

Try as I might, I cannot pinpoint the moment I became a mother. My best friend/coworker/doula explained that I became a mother the moment I knew I was pregnant. I wish that were true. It took so much longer–so much more for me to experience–to grow into motherhood. To be clear, becoming a parent was ...

Image of a girl alone in her home

I Think We’re Alone Now

Nobody likes to admit when they’re lonely. Especially not now. It’s sort of a cruel joke that there ALREADY exists an epidemic of loneliness overlapping the coronavirus pandemic.  God forbid we have a say in the matter. I think the difference now is that this loneliness epidemic affects people of all ages, not just older ...

Piggy bank with coins

Entitlement is a Warm Gun

A Friendly Wager Let’s assume that this is the first and ONLY pandemic of our lifetime. It’s a stretch, I know. So far, COVID-19 is the first and ONLY instance in modern history where every single person ON THE PLANET is experiencing the same thing. Of course, we can’t all live how the “Haves” would. ...

COVID 19 magnified cells

What a Time to Be Alive

Stranger Than Fiction I made it 1/4 of the way through Gabriel García Márquez’s novel Love in the Time of Cholera before I set my copy down never to return to it again. I mispronounced cholera for the duration of my time between those covers. The way I said it, ignorance sounded like ko-LEH-rah. I don’t do ...