From 1940 until the early 1980s, hundreds of children who suffered from severe asthma were separated from their parents and lived at the Children’s Asthma Research Institute and Hospital in Denver. Decades later, former patients talk about the life-altering experience. — By first grade, Kristina Friman was using a nebulizer twice a day to keep her asthma in check. Her medication regimen included theophylline, Entex, mucomyst, and, for acute attacks, adrenaline injections. Still, her asthma only got worse: By fourth grade, she had been hospitalized multiple times and suffered a collapsed…

I spotted the small green tin while in line at Rite Aid. I don’t remember what I was waiting to buy—lipstick? paper towels? cereal?—but I do remember the Bag Balm. It was displayed among the other impulse purchase items near the registers. …

The intense emotions we’re all experiencing right now — the yearning to see family and friends in person and without our faces partially obscured by a mask; the grief of losing loved ones, jobs, a sense of security; the restlessness with being stuck in one place — can often feel…

A year ago, I gave away my bed. I needed less clutter, in my home and in my mind, which to me meant sleeping on a cot for three months until I bought a futon and tatami mat. The cot was so narrow that one night I rolled right off…

When I turned 50 last year, the number didn’t hit me so hard on my actual birthday as it did when I received my first AARP membership offer shortly after. The membership offer included a free sturdy and spacious trunk-size tote. …

Four months after my slide into depression became a freefall, I bottomed out in a psychiatric facility. I barely recognized myself in the facility’s bathroom mirror. My eyes were startled, and my lips were unable to smile. Any attempt at one resulted in a rictus, a twisted grimace, as though…

My name is Heather, and I am not an alcoholic. That may sound like the punch line to a hackneyed joke mocking 12-step groups and the people who attend them, but it’s actually the introduction I made with all seriousness — and initially with more than a little trepidation —…

“Don’t worry,” the psych-ward tech told me after snapping a photo for my file. “We won’t post it on Facebook.” I was so far gone at that point that I actually forced a trembling smile at his tasteless joke. But the face in that photo — a copy of which was taped to my bedroom door for the duration of my five-day stay at Oceans Behavioral Hospital in Broussard, Louisiana…

The mice had shown no mercy. They chewed right through the organic linen garment bag I’d bought to protect my great-grandmother’s wedding dress. Granted, even before the rodents, age had taken its toll. My great-grandmother walked down the aisle wearing the silk-and-lace custom creation in 1898. No matter how well…