Two mothers

An oldie but goodie. I am in the red striped suit – age 4.

Nancy on the left, would become my stepmother four years later. She worked for American Heritage Magazine. Eighteen months after her wedding day, she became my court appointed guardian after my father’s death. She changed careers and became an English teacher in order to have the same schedule as my school did. She developed Alzheimer’s disease and our roles would be reversed.

My mother, Libby is on the right. She died a few months later, a few days shy of her 40th birthday, although you can’t even tell she is sick from this photo. She spent her working career at Publisher’s Weekly, where she started right out of college. She also reviewed books for McCall’s magazine and participated in the administration of the National Book Award. She was diagnosed with colon cancer shortly after I was born.

In spite of everything, I still consider myself lucky to have been cared for by these two women and many others who are not pictured here. They helped me find gratitude for all kinds of things, and that has made all the difference.

Here’s to all the mothers out there, especially the single mothers, and the mothers battling illnesses, and all the motherless daughters who keep moving through life and somehow keep themselves together after experiencing the unthinkable and surviving.

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