PHILADELPHIA 19—John Kelly and his wife, Christina, had held on to their son's childhood belongings, his Lego blocks and Beanie Babies, thinking that if they ever became grandparents, the kids might like to play with their father's old toys.

That "someday" vanished in November, gone with their only child, Thomas, age 30.

His dresser, bed, ...Read more

BALTIMORE — Empty liquor bottles rest like grave markers on a Baltimore street corner. Here, men show their love for the departed with expensive bottles.

Crown Royal whisky. Limited edition Hennessy cognac. Imported tequila. Top shelf for Anthony Covington.

In the mornings, however, city crews clear out the bottles left to mark the spot ...Read more

When I was a graduate student, one of the parenting memes then emerging from within the mental health professional community had it that “children deserved explanations.” The flip side of that very progressive notion was that parents should never say “Because I said so” in response to “Why?” or “Why not?”

One of the books I read...Read more

On Sept. 11, 2010 — 9 years after planes struck the World Trade Center towers in New York, at the Pentagon and crashed in a Pennsylvania field — I was hooked up to contraptions halfway across the country in a hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, bringing new life into the world.

My twins, Kayla and Kendall, were born about 5 weeks early that ...Read more

DETROIT – Jessica Trotter went from working on a heritage Girl Scouts badge in elementary school to tracing back her lineage three centuries.

Now, Trotter, 44, of Lansing, Michigan, is helping others do the same by exploring genealogy, the study of family and family history. Trotter authors a blog, www.genieroadtrip.com, packed with advice. ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Braxten Goodwin walked across the stage to receive her bachelor's degree in 2019, her extended family, packed in an overflow room and watching from a screen at Lincoln University in Columbia, Missouri, burst with pride.

When she gave birth to her first child in Kansas City a few months later, a dozen family members sat...Read more

MORA, Minn. – The gravel road that Renee and Andy Crisman live on, the road they drive every day, has disappeared.

The gravel is still there. But in the midst of a bitter struggle with local officials just outside this central Minnesota city, Hillman Township supervisors informed the Crismans earlier this month that, in their view, the road ...Read more

NEW YORK – Paralympian Arielle Rausin came to Icahn Stadium in New York to deliver a little bit of instruction and a whole lot of inspiration.

The 27-year-old Californian met live and in person Saturday with eight kids from the New York Roadrunners’ Youth Wheelchair Training program after conducting remote classes with the aspiring young ...Read more

Thrilled to return to school after last year’s quarantine, South Florida’s kids are putting on their masks each morning and forgetting about them for most of the day.

Meanwhile, the adults quarrel: the governor with school boards, anti-mask parents with school officials, pro-mask parents with state officials they have taken to court for ...Read more

The soaring number of children contracting COVID-19 is straining Georgia's pediatric health care system.

More kids than ever before are suffering from coronavirus cases so severe that they need to be hospitalized, filling pediatric wards at a time when physicians are also contending with an unseasonable surge of other respiratory viruses.

Many...Read more

The COVID-19 delta variant is driving up infections among children across the country, many of whom are too young to be vaccinated against the disease, just as they prepare to head back to classrooms this month.

After declining from April through June, cases among U.S. children rose sharply in late July, according to the American Academy of ...Read more

Months after developing COVID-19, many people continue to suffer debilitating symptoms such as fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, depression and “brain fog,” sometimes appearing long after infections subside and affecting even those who only experienced mild bouts of the disease.

The condition, commonly referred to as “long COVID-19,” ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — One evening last fall, after his three young children went to bed, Joseph Arriaga sat at his laptop and sent a Facebook message to a stranger.

"Hello Robert. My name is Joseph," it began. "I was born in 1992."

So many of Arriaga's defining memories had built toward this message. There was the time, around third grade, when a ...Read more

One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage, according to the World Health Organization. But while there are cultural scripts for responding to pregnancy and birth, there isn't one for miscarriage. Instead, families facing pregnancy loss often experience shame, stigma and isolation.

Amanda Knox wants to change that.

Knox, who in 2015 was ...Read more

Families nationwide began receiving child tax credit payments from the federal government last week, but some worry the poorest Americans may never see a dollar.

Huge numbers of people are eligible for cash under the American Rescue Plan, including the most needy Americans. But many of them make so little money, they don't file taxes, which is ...Read more

Early in the pandemic, there were predictions that stay-at-home orders would spawn a baby boom.

“Nine months after folks are forced to hunker down and ride out a natural disaster, the birth rate suddenly spikes,” explained an article on Fatherly, a parenting news website. “Whether it’s the boredom...or the sense of impending doom, there...Read more