“My mom’s smile is genuine, A lilac beaming In the presence of her Sun. Indentions in the sand prove Time’s linear progression, Her hair yet unblighted, Carrying midnight’s consistency. Clear tracks fading as the Movement slips further In the past. Cheekbones High, soft, In summer’s hue, Hopeful. Each step’s unknown impact, A future looking back. My father’s strength: One whose Life is in his arms. Squinting past the camera, He rests upon a rock Like caramel corn half eaten, Just to the left Of man-made concrete convention Daylight’s eraser Removing color to his right. Dustin sits In my father’s lap, Open mouth of a drooling Big mouth bass; Muscle tone Of a well exercised Jelly fish, He looks at me Half aware; His wheelchair Perched at the edge Of parking lot gravel grafted Like a scar on nature’s beach, Opening to the ironic splendor Of a bitter tasting lake. I took the picture. Age 11. Capturing the pinnacle arc Of a son To my lilac Who Outlived him and weeps, Still. Their sky has staple holes – Maybe that’s how the Light Leaked out.” InspirationalMotherPoetryLossMetaphorBereavementLilac Book:From My Mother Source: From My Mother
“I knew you’d know,” Mom said in a stabilizing, more confident, yet still husky voice. A smile broke across her face in the simple relief of her only remaining child not being shocked by the death of her youngest. She smiled genuinely, perhaps for the first time since cradling Dustin’s body as the fire truck alarm blared towards the house in response to her 911 call. Her son had died that morning in her arms as she tried resuscitating him with her own breath, but the first indication of her daughter’s reaction was calm. The child raised to expect death met the first moments of the news with seeming serenity.” BereavementSiblingChildhood MemoriesMuscular DystrophyMyotonic Muscular Dystrophy Book:From My Mother Source: From My Mother
“Her words felt like a new beginning, a turning of a page, and, ominously, rang like the beginning of a final chapter.” End Of LifeTerminal DiseaseMuscular DystrophyDnrVentilatorLife SupportMyotonic Muscular DystrophyMyotonic Dystrophy Book:From My Mother Source: From My Mother
“It took until the end of her life for me to cherish each day with my mother the way I naturally did with my brother. At the end, I loved my mother simply, without request to do better in any way, or be more capable in any way. I simply loved that she was there, and she was my mother. I wish I did that more often in my life. I will do that more often in my life for those who are still here.” InspirationCompassionEnd Of Life Care Book:From My Mother Source: From My Mother
“My lessons from my mother’s life are many, but one that stings the most and the one I want to imbue in my heart is to not judge people negatively by how they act, even if they look normal, or have been normal in your past, because you never know what they have to fight inside — something they never chose to have. The answer to Dustin walking was not willpower. He was not born to walk, and while trying made us better people, more practice wasn’t the answer — compassion was. The answer to the feeling that I was losing my mother slowly over the years was not to try to motivate her into a new perspective to magically fix all the problems — it was love.” LoveMotivationDiseaseEnd Of Life Care Book:From My Mother Source: From My Mother