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

Leftovers

The towering tray of leftover Thanksgiving fare remained intact as I struggled to open the hospital room door. My sister sat poking cloves of cinnamon into an apple, hooked to happy juice. A year my senior, she was 33, my touchstone. Her eyes sparkled when she saw me. No one else was there to vie for her attention or extend well-meaning platitudes. Thank god or, maybe not. Religion had decimated my family. I was considered “bad,” my sister, not as much. We laughed and cried. She ate every morsel. I did not know then it would be her last supper.

Sandra Hudson is a retired nurse with a love of reading, writing, and travel. Her family is her center and art feeds her soul!

The Couple

Lisa