The Beach

Lyle McKeany
6 min readFeb 19, 2021

This story was originally published on my Substack publication, Just Enough to Get Me in Trouble.

Before diving in, here are a few short details about my family:

  • Em is my daughter. Her full name is Emily, but we mostly call her Em. She’s just over two-and-a-half-years-old and has severe cerebral palsy. She’s a happy kid and loves music.
  • Sara is my stepdaughter. She’s eight years older than Em. She’s a sixth-grader and pro at Zoom school. (She doesn’t appear in today’s story)
  • Allison is my wife. She’s the super glue that holds us all together.

Okay, here we go.

Photo by Henrik Dønnestad

“What do you think she’s thinking right now?” I ask.

“That’s so funny, I was just thinking the exact same thing,” says Allison.

We’re on our way to Doran Beach in Bodega Bay. I’m driving, while Em is in her car seat and Allison is sitting next to her in the backseat of our Honda CR-V. We were feeling stir crazy and Em has been doing so well in the car lately that we decided to attempt a day trip. It’s our first beach visit since Em was born.

We’re about forty minutes into our hour-long drive and Em is doing remarkably well, even without listening to her music. I can’t overstate how big of a deal that is — and not just because we don’t have to listen to the “Emily

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