There is nothing more helpless than the human new born infant. Other animals are able to do more for themselves after birth. For example a new born calf stands up and finds mom and nurses. Kittens although unable to see will find their way to mom to nurse. None of us would be here today if a caregiver hadn’t held us and fed us. Usually that caregiver is our mother. She carries us in her body for 9 months. Without her we would not be here. She literally gives us the gift of our lives.
Today I spent an hour on the phone with my son and had breakfast with my daughter. I am blessed. As I sit here this evening I can’t help but think of a young woman who stayed with me many years ago. She had just given her new born up for adoption and was going back home to the mid west. She felt incredibly sad. Her family would never know. She had been adopted and did not want to hurt her adoptive mom. She had chosen to give her child the gift of life knowing she would not be able to keep it. That’s got to be a painful and difficult choice.
I don’t know why someone I met so long ago is on my mind tonight.
I started out to write about difficult mother-child relationships. What I realized is that Mother’s Day is not just about the mothers who raised their biological and adoptive children but also the mothers who were unable to keep the children they had.
Since writing this page a year ago I have responses from readers who felt that there had to be more to the story than there is. There really is not. The woman I wrote about returned to her family in the mid-west. I heard from her once then I left Hawaii and we lost touch.
