Kelly McHugh-Stewart is a New York City-based writer currently working on a book about her father, U.S. Army Colonel John McHugh, who was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2010. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the New School.
Kelly McHugh-Stewart picked up her ritual black coffee and red carnations, one for each member of her growing family, to lay at her father’s gravesite.
Kelly McHugh-Stewart’s father died in Afghanistan on May 18, 2010. Since then she’s had two separate graduations—both were on the anniversary of his death.