title: Dear Mom: Women's letters of love, loss, and longing
author: Deborah Berger
description: "...It's hard to put this book down, but once you do, you'll pick up a pen." -- <i>Ariel Gore, author</i><br /><br />"...these daughters show us how our own truthful words can heal and transform us at last." -- <i>Michele Weldon, author</i><br /><br />"...these daughters show us how our own truthful words can heal and transform us...." - Michele Weldon, author -- <i>pre publication</i><br /><br />"Dear Mom... is emboldening, soothing, heartbreaking, inspiring." -Ariel Gore, author of The Mother Trip -- <i>pre-publication</i><br /><br />"Deborah Berger has found a remarkable way to weave an intimate web of connections that includes all women." -- <i>Elizabeth Lyon, author</i><br /><br />"Deborah Berger has found a...way to weave an intimate web of connections that includes all women." -Elizabeth Lyon, author -- <i>pre publication</i>
zlib_text: ![](Images/image00155.jpeg)
  
    
  
  _For my mother_
  
   **1.**
  
   **the honeymoon**
  
  IF I TOOK every romantic poem, every book, every song, and every movie I’ve
  ever read, heard, or seen and extracted the breathtaking moments, somehow
  bottling them up, they would pale in comparison to this moment.
  
  This moment is incomparable.
  
  She’s lying on her side facing me, her elbow tucked under her head, her other
  hand stroking the back of mine that’s lying between us on the bed. Her hair is
  spread out across the pillow, spilling down her shoulder and across her neck.
  She’s staring at her fingers as they move in circles over my hand. I’ve known
  her almost two years now, and I’ve never seen her this content. She’s no
  longer solely carrying the weight that’s been her life for the last two years,
  and it shows. It’s almost as if the moment we said “I do” yesterday, the
  hardships and heartaches we faced as individuals were meshed, making our pasts
  lighter and easier to carry. From this point on I’ll be abl