I am fooling only myself when I say my mother exists now only in the photograph on my bulletin board or in the outline of my hand ...or in the armful of memories I still hold tight. She lives on in everything I do. Her presence influenced who I was, and her absence influences who I am. Our lives are shaped as much by those who leave us as they are by those who stay. Loss is our legacy. Insight is our gift. Memory is our guide.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West, From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,... When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board The old broken links of affection restored, When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more, And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before. What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye? What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I remember the almost daily talks of my mother on the cruelty of slavery. I would say nothing to her, but I was thinking all the t...ime that slavery did not seem so cruel. Master and Mistress Jennings were not mean to my mother. It was she who was mean to them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It's a rare parent who can see his or her child clearly and objectively. At a school board meeting I attended . . . the only defin...ition of a gifted child on which everyone in the audience could agree was "mine."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I had heard so much about how hard it was supposed to be that, when they were little, I thought it would be horrible when they got... married and left. But that's silly you know. . . . By the time they grow up, they change and you change. Eventually, they're not the same little kids and you're not the same mother. It's as if everything just falls into a pattern and you're ready.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Unpleasant questions are being raised about Mother's Day. Is this day necessary? . . . Isn't it bad public policy? . . . No politi...cian with half his senses, which a majority of politicians have, is likely to vote for its abolition, however. As a class, mothers are tender and loving, but as a voting bloc they would not hesitate for an instant to pull the seat out from under any Congressman who suggests that Mother is not entitled to a box of chocolates each year in the middle of May.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I became the Incredible Shrinking Mother the year they started junior high. If our relationship today depended on physical clout, ...I would have about the same influence with them that the republic of Liechtenstein has on world politics.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Today, only a fool would offer herself as the singular role model for the Good Mother. Most of us know not to tempt the fates. The... moment I felt sure I had everything under control would invariably be the moment right before the principal called to report that one of my sons had just driven somebody's motorcycle through the high school gymnasium.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"Mother" is the first word that occurs to politicians and columnists and popes when they raise the question, "Why isn't life turni...ng out the way we want it?"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It takes twenty or so years before a mother can know with any certainty how effective her theories have been--and even then there ...are surprises. The daily newspapers raise the most frightening questions of all for a mother of sons: Could my once sweet babes ever become violent men? Are my sons really who I think they are?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »