When a loved one has Alzheimer's, "you lose them twice," said Lucy Lamm, whose mother, Bonnie Finch, has Alzheimer's. "Once when their mind goes and once when they pass away."

Retama Park in Selma, Texas is a venue in which the public gets to see very little of what actually happens. After the track's closure in September, the public got to seen even less. This essay visits some of Retama's harder-to-see places.

On Oct. 10, 2014, North Carolina became the 29th state to allow gay marriage. After more than 34 years together, Stanley Finch and Jeffery Beam got married at a friend's home on Nov. 29, 2014. Beam and Finch, both born and raised in North Carolina, said they wanted to get married to celebrate their relationship and exercise their right to equality under state law. Their act of matrimony legally redefined their relationship and the two formally became family members. "We never thought this day would come in our lifetime," said Beam. It's "hard to think it is real and not some joke." In May, the couple held a second ceremony in a church.