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Notes For An Archaeology of the Mother by Diane McPherson Part Five of Five Parts Note about this essay
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Part V. Finally: Put all of these exercises together with whatever else you want to say, and write an essay about your mother (or mother-equivalent) in which you show her as a human being--not merely as someone who belongs to you. I see that I have done again what I always do: I have made my mother so much larger than life that she seems unreal. She is not. She is 68 years old, still married to my dad (for almost 49 years) still healthy, still thriving. She is still the mother of eleven: among us are at least seven college graduates (I have trouble remembering, but she does not), two with Master's degrees, one Ph.D., one M.D. We are engineers, writers, owners of a construction company, tree farmers, truckdrivers, secretary, power company employee, doctor, college professor, company manager, waitress. She has twelve grandchildren and her first great-grandchild. She is on her third career. After taking bookkeeping courses at night school, she worked for the state for many years; now she works part time for two of my brothers, doing the books for their company, and runs her own business designing and knitting sweaters, hats, mittens, and other things, and selling them at crafts fairs and cooperative crafts stores. If you met her today, not knowing her history, you would see a small, vibrant, cheerful woman who loves coffee, loves to talk, is interested in everything traditional and everything new and has never been bored in her 68 years of life. She has not achieved some of her dreams for herself. Instead of giving them up, she has so generously given them to her children that we are convinced they are our own. ~~~~~~~~~ To other parts of "Archaeology of a Mother": 1-- 2-- 3-- 4 |
