Posts Tagged Under mother’s love
The Tyranny of an Anniversary
The anniversary ringtone flashed on my screen demanding my attention.
“Remember,” it said. “Today.”
So damn sure of itself.
This isn’t the add-another-notch to the wedding band date, although I’m sure I’ve had a few snarky responses to those as well. This anniversary was a reminder of events that we feel obliged to honor even though honor is not something we like to give death credit for. Why would a mother want to remember her son’s death?
The countdown to his last day dovetails along with the broadcast demands of 9/11’s 10th anniversary the week before. But I’ve been anticipating September 18th since May. His birthday seems like a poor joke in light of our family’s holiday lineup: Mackenzie’s falls on Martin Luther King Day (her initials just happen to be MLK); Tyler’s is Labor Day (you can say that again) and Aaron’s falls on Memorial Day (not funny). Cameron came along three years after Aaron died on – naturally – the first day of spring. Our herald to life renewed. Continue… »
By Kimberley KwokFrom California to Congo: A Mom on a Mission to Enact Change
Writing Mama Janine Kovac interviews fellow member Mindy Urhlaub in a profound and heart-rending piece.
“In the countryside, the air is very clean [but] the air outside my Goma hotel constantly smells acrid—like a cook fire. It makes your eyes feel like beef jerky.”
Mindy Uhrlaub, a Writing Mamas member is writing a novel about Congo, one of the most ravaged places on Earth. She writes about the devastation of a land, the oppression of a people, and the corruption within a country. It is a place where malaria is deadly instead of treatable, and where women are raped and mutilated and then ostracized for the crimes they’ve suffered. She writes about teen-aged mothers and the sick children who play in the dirt at their feet. She writes about the brave women who school the young mothers, feed the children and risk their lives by caring for their kin.
She isn’t writing a novel by choice; she writes a novel because anything but a fictionalized account of quotidian life in Congo will put the lives of these women in danger. Her research began 10 years ago after reading the book, King Léopold’s Ghost. What began as a passing interest has spawned two identities that feed off of each other: Mindy the writer who is inspired by activism in Congo and Mindy the activist who uses writing as her medium for change. Continue… »
By Janine KovacCherish the Love
It’s February 14 and 29 years since I lost my first pregnancy, already into my second trimester. My husband and I grieved in the days and months that followed, but the pain of that loss has never truly diminished, possibly because it occurred on Valentine’s Day, but more likely because our bubble of joy was literally shattered so suddenly.
Motherhood did eventually arrive, and with the birth of each of my three children, our lives morphed into the exclusive bubble that only close-knit families know so well. They are all young adults now, each one making us incredibly proud as they’ve taken flight, and pursued fulfilling lives of their own.
On this Valentine’s Day, however, my heart is in anguish. Medical diagnosis is days away, and pointers are prominently staring at a disease I am all too familiar with. It’s nasty, and it rears its ugly head with the freedom to flare at will, knowing there are no weapons of medical science to battle against it. Victims are left defenseless. There are few options to alleviate symptoms, and none can stop the advancement of the charge. Continue… »
By Ann JewettThe DNA of Love
I’ve had the crud for more than a month now. It’s become a way of life.
Headache. Tummy torment. Vomit. A valley of frogs in my throat that gives me a hint of what I might sound like if I were to undergo sexual reassignment surgery.
Miraculously it has not affected my husband. He is Superman fighting off illness in a single bound. Son Jay who was always claiming to have some exotic disease when he was younger has grown out of that stage. Now he prefers to go into extraordinary detail about medical diseases in all of their gross glory. Continue… »
By Dawn Yun
