This quote has always struck a deep chord within me, not only because I am a writer, but because this was my mother’s philosophy. On top of that, Hope Edelman is the author of Motherless Daughters: A Legacy of Loss, and her collection truly guided my understanding of loss when my mother suddenly passed away in 2003.
This is almost every picture I have of my mother. She was always reading. And she didn’t like to get her picture taken, so we had to sneak them when she wasn’t looking.
My mother’s love is exactly what I wanted to post about today–and only this.
March 16 (tomorrow) will be the 10-year-anniversary of her death, and I have to admit hitting such a mark is very surreal along with emotionally challenging. At such a time in my life, I have moments where I begin fighting my dream, because I wish I had her to share it with (as I did when I was a child.) However, on other days, this emotion possesses me to strive forward, and I remember how that’s exactly what she’d want me to do. Being an avid reader, writer, and lover of stories, she worked hard everyday, and I work every day to cherish her memory.
I remember, specifically, one time in Barnes & Noble. I was in fourth grade, and I was obsessed with the Dear America series. She let me pick four or five out every time we were there. This added up to a lot of money, considering that the series was all hardcover at the time, and I asked her why she let me get all of them.
“Because,” she said. “if a parent should spend extra money on anything for their kids, it should be books.” She later added anything that encouraged the passion of a child. For instance, my older brother was an artist, and they got him drawing supplies.
1. I was doing something I loved.
2. I was doing something I loved with someone I loved.
3. I was doing something I loved with someone I loved, and those moments are the most important moments to love.
My mom reading with my older brother on her back. She loved her family and her books.