“I didn’t answer right away. I wanted to listen. He went on to say, ‘I remember when I was little mama and Cooper had it. I couldn’t figure him out. I used to think he was from a different planet because he screamed all the time.’ He sighed. ‘I just wish sometimes it would go away so we could talk.'”
“I don’t tell you that even though we are careful not to watch these awful videos of unarmed people getting shot, your children are showing them at school. That my son has said the words ‘I can’t breathe’ when seeing a police car. I need you to love them like you love your own sons, because my mama heart cannot handle another man being shot that looks like my brothers, cousins, uncles, and sons.”
“I always get comments, looks, and shocked eyes when I say that. The fact that I don’t assume he is going to grow up and marry a woman is shocking to many people.”
“Without a full-time job weighing me down, I was going to be the domestic goddess I had always dreamed of becoming. A cookie-baking trophy wife who worked out regularly, kept a beautiful home, and had a fiery libido. His life would get SO MUCH BETTER. Needless to say, I am none of those things.”
“Those first few weeks, I feel like we were all in denial. I know I was. My practical self found its way to bargaining. I’m not going to lie, I did convince my wife to let us get the trampoline. Give yourself a little grace.”
“Last year my mother and mother-in-law spent a combined eight weeks living with my family as we prepared for the end of my daughter’s life and grieved her afterward. I’ll survive the day, because it is just that, one day and I’ve survived much worse.”
“After I calmed down, I told him I was sorry. I felt terrible. ‘You don’t have to apologize. But thank you.’ What would make him say that? I thought a lot about it. But I’ll give it to ya straight. I always thought that was a bunch of crap.”
“I’m still waiting for the moment where I know exactly what I’m doing. Because truth is, I rarely do. While I don’t always feel like Mom of the Year—I still feel like a mother. Her mother. And most days, a pretty good one.”
“I was still 15 and so you drove me the 30 minutes there, stayed in the car doing your nursing school homework during the 3-hour rehearsal, and then drove us the 30 minutes home. Every single day.”
“It should have been her prom. But instead, she is in the car with her father, taking her first trip outside these walls since March. A ride to the store is a treat that brought tears to her eyes tonight.”
