News & Notes hears from two men speaking about their mothers at the StoryCorps Project, the interview booth at Grand Central Station in New York City.
ED GORDON, host: As you know, Sunday is Mother's Day, and we hear next from a couple of      guys who took advantage of the StoryCorps radio initiative in New York's      Grand Central Station.  There, anyone can bring a friend or loved one and      sit together for an interview.  They can have it recorded to CD and even      send it off to the Library of Congress to become part of an oral history      of America, with some excerpts broadcast on NPR.  In this clip from the      booth, brothers Lloyd and Gregory Porter remember their mother, Ruth      Esther Thompson(ph), who died in 1994.</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #1:  Tell me about Mom.</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #2:  If you were sick, stressed out about something or      whatever, I remember many times Mom coming in, and sometimes in the      middle of the night--she loved waking you up in the middle of the night.</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #3:  Either she had a dream about you...</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #2:  Right.</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #3:  ...or was thinking about you, so you'd be sitting      up at the end of your bed, and she'd put that hand on your back, take      your head and bring it to her bosom, you know, rub your back      counterclockwise.  It was just like, why do my troubles seem so miniscule      right now?</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #2:  Somehow, the back rub made it like, `I'm OK.'      That, or the fried egg sandwich with you.  Remember I went to Africa and      it was just like a thousand degrees, I was stressed out, and I just woke      up one morning, like, I need my mama's fried egg sandwich.  I've got to      get out of here.  I was ready to go home that day.  I thought, I've got      to go home and get an egg sandwich.</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #3:  The egg sandwich represented home.</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #2:  Yeah.</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #3:  It represented comfort and Mom.  Yeah.</s>ED GORDON, host: Unidentified Man #2:  She so permeated my life that it's difficult for me      to write a song that doesn't have something about her in it.  OK, so I      had this relationship go bad.  I wrote a song, and I'm like, this is the      furthest thing from my mother, but my mother--she crept into the lyrics.</s>ED GORDON, host: (Singing) I feel just a kite, but one without a string, one that is      floating around.  I don't know what tomorrow will bring.  I wish my mama      was here, a strong, a strong, steady rose.  She would know what to do,      what to say, how to pray, to make things better.</s>ED GORDON, host: I didn't even write these lyrics when I went to record the song.  That      just came out.</s>ED GORDON, host: Once again, Lloyd and Gregory Porter, speaking at the StoryCorps      radio initiative in New York's Grand Central Station.