“I often tell myself, I am young, my body is strong, and I delay making appointment after appointment, physical after physical, until I think about my mother, and I schedule something for the next week.” LearningGenerationsPhysical Health Book:Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir Source: Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir
“But, Mommy, grief is a container of contradictions. I want to expel something, though I do not know what. I want to rid myself of this heaviness, just as much as I want to keep your ghosts.” Grief Book:Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir Source: Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir
“Our time with our mother was a past life—some version of ourselves from which we’d become estranged.” GriefGrief And Loss Book:Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir Source: Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir
“She’d want you to be happy, not suffering. I couldn’t blame them for saying such things, but each time someone said my mother was watching over us and would have wanted us to be happy, I privately disagreed. To have been happy would have been to disrespect her life. After all, we were only just surveying the rubble after the catastrophe. We understood now how everything had shifted: There would be no more visits with our family; no more of her cooking; no more talks about our futures and how we needed to do more; no more burrowing into her shoulders for hugs.” Grief Book:Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir Source: Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir
“Mothers provide, she often said. I’m the provider . She made a fist and thumped her chest to show her strength. She filled such basic needs for us just by being alive. She was the general. She was the one who strategized our futures and led us to win wars. With her, we were safe.” GriefGrief And LossMothers Book:Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir Source: Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir
“My father often talks of survival - do whatever is necessary to succeed - but where in this idea does satisfaction factor? Mommy, I am asking about your happiness - and yet, I am only able to reach as far as "satisfied.” HappinessSatisfactionParents Book:Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir Source: Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir