Once upon a time is how all of the fairy tales start, and I've read my share. My oldest son fell in love with the three little pigs the first time I told it to him, and my younger son was obsessed with the moon. My baby, Curtis, turned 21 the beginning of June, and I mourn the loss of the child he once was. He was the sweetest baby, not that Scott wasn't, but he was prickly where Curtis was as smooth as a rose petal, and innocent way past the time most children are. I cherished that. I wonder, in the future when they tell their wives about their childhood will they say they were happy. Will they tell stories about their crazy mother who tried to parent with humor and whimsy instead of yelling and hitting? Wait, I think they already do that. There are no nudie pictures of them to be embarrased by, I considered their adulthood when they were babies, and simply did not take those shots. I think about the relationships between mothers and their children, the absolute closest tie possible. It's not sex, as I thought before I had them, but the blood and gene sharing. They were both occupants of the same address in my body, albeit at different times, and that is a spot that you know in your bones, your mother's womb.
My Sharonmom knows about me in a way no one ever can, there was a long time when she and I were one,and she had the raising and growth of me for 9 months, a time we were totally alone together. I love my Rachelmom who raised me on the outside of her body, she is responsible for my nurture neurosis, my hangups, the things I couldn't learn from her example because she was lacking in these ways, and she is also responsible for the strong things she taught me about being a woman.
I haven't liked myself too much in my previous life. The things that were special about me and eccentric and different just baffled her and she tried incessantly to rid me of them, by any means possible. Would I have been different if Sharonmom could have raised me?
Every human being is different, but I have someone who is a unique point of view, a sister only 2 short years younger than me. I so much want to know what she is like. Kathy and I shared the same address in Mom's body, at different times, and this concept, this feeling is too big for me to grasp. I have a sister. And when I cried my heart out to Sharonmom, she not only got it, but she knew what to do. I have never ever experienced that before in my life, really, never.
Once upon a time, I had a mother. Now I have a sister. And though I have a couple of more brothers now, and I want to know about them too, I have a sister. I have a mother. And it's finally happily ever after.