Tuesdays with Shirley
For almost three years, I spent nearly every Tuesday evening visiting my 95 year old mother, the woman who started me on my writing journey. As the last of her eight children, I have a unique perspective but not a special one. In the beginning, I focused on asking her about the life she and my dad lived with my older siblings, and it both strengthened my connection to our family and revealed its fault lines - I was simply not a part of so much of it.
My favorite discussions revolved around religion, human nature and, of course, the craft of writing ...the same things we considered when I was a teenager and she and I lived alone without any of my other siblings. Near the end, her short term memory faltered and she might ask me thirty times during the course of my visit what day it is. But her long term memory remained vibrant, which brought me comfort. She could still tell her story ...and everything is a story - especially the lives we've led.
