Inside the hospital, an 80-year-old mother takes her last breath in front of her five loving children. At the same time, on one floor below, a newborn baby takes her first breath in front of her joyful parents.

A young couple in the same hospital weeps after their 6-year-old son dies from heart disease, while across town a father shouts at his son of the same age after the boy spilled milk on the couch.

In a bi-level house, a bored young man yawns while his father tries to give him some advice. During that same morning in the town cemetery, a grieving young man stands over his dad’s grave and would do anything if they could talk to each other just one more time.

An ex–Marine captain from the outskirts of town is honored at a veterans breakfast for his service to his country, while his infantry friend from the Vietnam War sits at home reliving the day that he witnessed his three comrades shot to death from an enemy machine gun.

At the grocery store, a woman holds a container of chicken salad before going home to share what might be the final meal with her husband, who has stage five cancer. In the same aisle, a man holds a package of lobster tails that he and his wife will have for dinner to celebrate the recent news that he is cancer-free.

An elderly couple living in a small ranch house near the gas station worries that they can’t pay their bills if the government delays their Social Security check and it doesn’t arrive on time. Five miles away, a corporate CEO taps in a putt on the 11th hole of a members only golf course and then brags to his friend that he made $400,000 that afternoon when the stock market rebounded following weeks of losses.

In Anytown USA, a puppy licks a little girl’s face and she giggles in delight. A minute later, a car carrying a tearful family passes the little girl’s house while taking their 16-year-old golden retriever on its final ride to the veterinarian’s office.

At the Little League game, a meddling father of an 11-year-old boy who just struck out shouts to his son: “What’s the matter with you? Hit the ball, will ya!” In the backyard of a house across the street from the field, a dad underhands wiffle ball pitches to his son, and after six straight swings and misses, the boy belts the ball across the yard. They share a warm hug and a couple of candy bars.

On the turnpike in Anytown USA, a driver weaving in and out of traffic at high speed gets pushed into the death path of two other vehicles by a tractor-trailer that didn’t see him changing lanes. The weaver’s wife, not knowing about her husband’s fatality, picks up their two small children from the elementary school and takes them out for ice cream.

In Anytown USA, a man holds an engagement ring he just bought and waits anxiously for his girlfriend to come home from work to tell her that he wants to get married. Within the same hour, another man holds his wedding ring and waits nervously for his wife to come home from work to tell her that he wants a divorce.

At the corner by the giant oak tree, a church elder says they have to close their food bank services because of a lack of donations, when earlier that day the elder gave the last five dollars that he had in his wallet to a homeless person who was inside the dumpster behind the church looking for something to eat.

In the kitchen of their home, a family of 12 celebrates Grandma’s 90th birthday with cake and balloons. In his living room in a house around the block, an 85-year-old man eats leftover spaghetti. He keeps looking at the clock, hoping that any of his three children will call before the night is over to wish him a happy birthday.

Down the road a bit, a 17-year-old girl from a family of drug addicts and alcoholics was just told she will be graduating number one in her high school class. Right next door, the girl’s classmate drives away in her brand-new $60,000 BMW after she was told she doesn’t have enough credits to graduate.

On a dead-end street, a house displays signs of “Beware of the Dog” and “Keep off the Grass,” while the next- door neighbor has the word “Welcome” carved in wood hanging on his front door.

Somebody tosses a bag of garbage from a car window. Somebody else driving behind gets out of his vehicle and retrieves the bag.

At the elementary school, a kindergarten class filled with children of many colors and cultures happily shares a platter of homemade chocolate chip cookies baked by their teacher. Later in the afternoon, at the middle school lot across the street, a bunch of juveniles rip a kid’s lunch bag out of his hand just because he doesn’t look like them or talk like them.

As the night thickens across the neighborhoods, two teenage girls sit upon the roof of a house. One looks up into to the glimmering sky and reads her favorite poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to her favorite friend. “Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadow of heaven, blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.” Inside their Victorian house down the street, two of the girls’ classmates sit on a couch absorbed by their cellphones and ignore a TV program that talks about the mystical beauty of a galaxy filled with a million points of light.

In their townhome, a man lovingly fusses over Anastasia, his wife of 42 years. She suffers from advanced dementia, and at the precise moment that he kisses her cheek, their granddaughter who lives around the block kisses her 2-month-old daughter who has the same given name.

These are more of the stories about the lives of the people who live in Anytown, USA.

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com