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

This Year

I hand her the mixer and show her how to change the speeds. “First,” I say, “we need to beat the cream cheese until it's smooth.” At eleven, she’s tall, just like her dad was. “I’ve got it, mom,” she assures me. We make a cake for his birthday every year. She was three when he died, and now she cracks eggs, smooths the batter in the pan, puts on the final touches. Her dad loved the woods, and this year I found sprinkles with little green trees. This year, she does it almost all on her own, it seems.

Sarah Kilch Gaffney is a writer, brain injury advocate, and homemade caramel aficionado living in Maine. You can find her work at www.sarahkilchgaffney.com.

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