Catherine Gigante-Brown

From New York to LA, this lady knows a good story.

I saw my present mother-in-law in a whole new light the first time she held my newborn son.

I was 21 –– a Catholic, heterosexual college student, living at home in Brooklyn and still trying to discover who I was. At the crossroads of her life, Lorde knew exactly who she was. She was waging a war against cancer and sharing an old house in Staten Island with her kids and partner. But maybe we weren’t so different after all.

The office cubicle is indeed a strange bird. Here's how to survive life in a box without driving you—or your office mates—crazy.

You learn a lot about people when you live in their home. The Taylors seemed to lead a joyless, Spartan existence.

Why, when I'm cool with being a salt-and-pepper chick, does it so clearly unnerve others?

I realized my father was from a generation that never said those three little words. He was saying he loved me without them. But I didn't realize it then.

I thought cancer was behind me. Until I had a weird pain near my left ovary which lasted for several days. It felt a lot like ovulation...Only, at 56, that train had left the station a long time ago.

To the tattoo artist, I was a flesh canvas that she could transform into something beautiful.

The santero sent us off with a shopping list of ite