Catherine Gigante-Brown

Makeup and I have always had a love/hate relationship: I love it; it hates me.

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.

I try. I really do. But whenever I attempt to embrace my husband Peter’s Cuban culture, I always screw up.

A new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation on mammograms ensures more women will die of breast cancer.

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

At the New York City release party for Dayna Kurtz’ latest, Rise and Fall, my friend Nadia leaned over to me and whispered, “Why the fuck

Even when I explained to my son that he came from a long line of short people, it didn’t help. David still felt bad about being small. How could a five-year-old possibly get this type of size-shaming message? From other people, mostly insensitive adults. They gave him the idea that bigger was somehow better.

I dreaded putting him back on Concerta in the fall but I knew I had to. Or did I?

8. Educate, don’t fixate.