Hera McLeod

Mama’s Little Travel Buddy

As some of you who follow my Facebook know, I just went back to work after three months of glorious maternity leave. Two weeks ago, I decided to take Stela on a short vacation before I returned to work. For those of you who are not in the US, I should note that we have…

The Legal Form Of Child Abuse

Before I get into this topic, let me put forth a few disclaimers: 1) I know this topic is controversial, and some folks are going to disagree with me. If you can’t handle someone disagreeing with you, you might not want to continue reading. 2) I am not in the business of telling folks how…

A Miscarriage Of Justice

A couple of months before my son Prince was murdered, another little boy was killed just miles away from where Prince died in Manassas, VA. His name was Elijah Nealey. Elijah was only 23 months old when his monster of a babysitter, Jessica Fraraccio, killed him. Fraraccio had been frustrated because Elijah was crying. So frustrated…

Divorce Corpse

“An unhinged man involved in a bitter child-custody battle tossed his toddler son to his death from the roof of a 52-floor building on the Upper West Side Sunday, then killed himself by jumping, law-enforcement sources said.” – NYPOST.COM “An Arizona woman is accused of fatally poisoning her two children a day before she…

Haters Gonna Hate

Last Friday, The Washington Post’s Jo-Ann Armao wrote an emotional and beautiful article which told the story of what happened to my son. It also included the joys of my daughter. To the surprise of nobody, trolls came out of the bowels of the Internet to shine their hate on a story that was meant…

Rising After The Fall

“The greatest glory in living lies not from never falling, but from rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela On December 5, 2013, heaven gained another angel when Nelson Mandela passed away. Thinking about how this man chose to live his life has offered me some much needed reflection. Here is a man who…

Grown Ass Man Child

A few weeks ago, I wrote about what I believed it took to be a good father. In the past few weeks, given that it is now the holiday season, I am thinking even more about family. One of the things that people ask me a lot, in reference to Luc, is why I stayed…

Crazy And Deranged

When I was with Luc, he always used to refer to the woman he dated before me as “crazy and deranged”. He would force his son to call her by that name despite the fact that it was clear the child didn’t harbor the same ill will against her. Though Luc claimed that they had…

To Be A Good Dad…

Last week, my good friend Daddy Doin’ Work called me a week ago and asked me if I would answer an important question as part of a guest posting on his blog. He wanted to capture the opinion of Mom’s he respected on what it meant to be a good Dad. At first, I laughed and…

My Survival Date

This past weekend (October 20th and 21st to be exact) marked the one year anniversary of the worst two days of my entire life. While I am still relatively young, I am willing to bet that October 20-21, 2012 would have been considered astronomically bad by anyone’s standards – and even that seems like an…