Memory of a Mother

True story.

Her hair is light years long and in the wind, her brown waves stick to the cracks in her smile. Even at low tide, our feet sink into the soft sand while we stay on the banks looking for sand dollars and sea glass. In pursuit of a hermit crab, I carelessly split a toe on a barnacled rock. My eyes tear from the stinging salt water and the sight of my blood, but she strokes my hair behind my ears and I forget.

 

“The salt water is healing it,” she says. And she kisses my forehead.

 

Time creeps by on feathered feet, and the moon silently pushes the sun from the sky. I clamp my eyes closed when her soft hand brushes the sticky sea sand from my face. She guides me away from the tired beach accompanied by the familiar summer wind. I sing her a silly song that she helps me make up as we go along and she tickles my neck. I am five years old. She is my mother and in the bliss of youth she is my world. I look at her and ask with serious concern if anyone has ever died from giggling. She laughs.

 

A year later the tumor appears. Astrocytoma, the doctor’s say, in the brain; malignant and very hard to treat.

 

She dies two years later.

 

And everyone stops laughing.

Reviews

[PianoandPage]

heartbreaking. a very well written piece. a wonderful tribute to the mother. her free spirit and nurturing energy. the encouragement of the creative. the beauty and natural pain that come in and out with the tide.

i love the image of the moon patiently pushing the sun out of the way.

i've noticed that your writing style often incorporates a mixture of the cycles of nature and the physical and emotional cycles of people. very nice.

of course the ending was a slap in the face.

a small suggestion would be to put the last 2 sentences as their own line breaks.

[Jasper]

This is just lovely...its like watching a Bette Midler film....in a good way....lol. Wonderful imagery and words. I was there watching you on the beach. And then the bombshell at the end. Simply written and all the more devastating for it. Really powerful and emotional. I love it....

[Cliff Rhodes]

Hi Tessa,
This is so beautiful and so very sad, but it seems the two accompany each other through time. Thank you for sharing this ever-enchanting, loving memory of the wind, sea and the sand and why it will remain in our hearts as well as yours.