Losing Your Mom By Peggy Heinzmann Ekerdt Last night I sat at a local swimming pool watching my daughter Gretchen complete in yet another swim meet. Gretchen stepped up on the block to swim the first event, cleared the shallow dive, and began her smooth freestyle stroke. When she turned her head to take her first breath, I realized the force of her dive had shoved her goggles down over her mouth. Panic rose within me as I thought: She can’t breathe; if she touches her goggles, she will be disqualified; how can she complete a 200-meter race with goggles over her mouth? She will never make it—oh God, please help her to make it. Made it she did, and I had to laugh. Only a mother would work herself into a dither at a summer swim meet. And then, an insight: this is what we lose when our mothers die. We lose the person who rejoices in our accomplishments and agonizes in our struggles; the person who thinks we should win every race, woo every beau or belle, and succeed at every job; the person whose first urge is to protect, shelter, and guide us; the person who knows what is best for us, or thinks she does, the person who brags about us in our absence and offers expert advice in our presence. In sum, we lose the person who is our biggest fan and our most ardent defender.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 20:38:17 +0000