Three sisters in Oregon, learning how to look after each other after their mother dies. Each episode stands alone. Each one carries the weight of the whole.
Ongoing · Episodic · Drop in anywhereThree sisters,
figuring it out
When their mother dies, Willow comes home from college. She doesn’t know how long she’ll stay. She doesn’t say this out loud. She makes breakfast, drives her sisters to school, answers the questions she can answer, and doesn’t answer the ones she can’t.
On Our Own is set in Oregon and told in episodes — a hike, a boat ride, a quiet afternoon that turns into something else. The adventures are sedate. The feelings underneath them are not. Each episode stands alone, but they all belong to the same story.
Who’s in the story
Was in college when their mother died. Came home. Is serious, interested in film, and quietly carrying more than anyone asks her to name. She didn’t sign up to be a parent. She showed up anyway.
Caught between pushing against the new shape of things and loving her sister fiercely. She tests the boundaries because she needs to know they’ll hold. They do. She knows this. She tests them anyway.
Very sweet. Not quite sure yet what’s happening. She is looked after by both her sisters with a care that is sometimes clumsy and always real. She notices more than anyone thinks she does.
Episodes
Willow comes home. The house is the same house. Everything else is different. The three of them are in the same rooms, figuring out what the new rules are, and whether there are any.
Read episode
Willow drives to Eugene. It’s a practical trip. She has things to collect, things to sort out. She drives back the long way. Oregon looks different when you’re not sure where home is anymore.
Read episode
A quiet episode, mostly Fern’s. She finds something in the garden. She thinks about her mother. She doesn’t tell her sisters about it, which is its own kind of growing up.
Read episode
Olive on a boat. The water is still. She is not. She has things she wants to say and doesn’t know how to say them yet. The water helps. It usually does.
Read episode“They were three people in a house that used to have four. They were figuring out what that meant, one ordinary day at a time.”