Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

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"Sandy, do you have a nine-year-old daughter?" Hyper-alert, pulled from work's reverie, I hesitantly said, "Yes." The voice was familiar, a co-worker, the manager of our hospital’s emergency room department. Her somber timbre was as concerning as her words. "Could you please come to the ER and have someone drive you?" Off-site at the corporate office, I was cocooned from the usual hustle and bustle of the hospital. An office co-worker drove the five minutes to the hospital while I drowned in a kaleidoscope of eventualities. Running through the automated doors, I thought I was prepared, but I was not.

Sandra Hudson is a recently retired nurse, entrepreneur, travel enthusiast, mother, grandmother and wife. She loves reading and writing, painting, sculpting and the theater.

Marksman

Penelope