R.E. Dyer

“Dad’s Three Laws,” my entry to The Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest, is now available online. It will also appear in Best Stories from the Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest 2026, releasing soon.

What’s making me especially giddy is that you can access “Dad’s Three Laws” through my author page on The Saturday Evening Post website! Somebody pinch me!

“Dad’s Three Laws” is my meditation on the grief and destruction neurological disorders wreak on a family. I’ve seen dementia from several perspectives, and there’s a fair chance that someday it will affect me directly. This story attempts to tackle the strain that hits a family after dementia enters the picture.

I am so very proud that “Dad’s Three Laws” resonates. It wasn’t an easy story to write, but it felt necessary. I wasn’t sure whether it was necessary for me or for a larger audience, and it means the world that the editorial staff at The Saturday Evening Post decided on the latter.

One of the worst aspects of dementia, in my experience, is that it’s a terribly lonely disease, not only for the afflicted but for individual family members. If this story makes anyone feel seen or a little less alone, then I suppose I did my job.

You can find “Dad’s Three Laws” here.

Or navigate to it from my The Saturday Evening Post author’s site here. (I apologize if I’m overdoing it; I’m still in shock that this has happened.)

And again, I would like to thank the editorial staff at The Saturday Evening Post for allowing me to share this story.