The Day My Mother Abandoned Me
I hadn’t yet realized she was already far gone
My sister and I arrived at my mother’s house on Wednesday. It was her turn to have us.
Although tears in mother’s eyes were common, the glassy drops were exceptionally heavy that day.
“Girls, meet me in the living room, we need to talk.”
It was warning enough. I anxiously braced for impact, my typical response since the day she snuck us out of father’s house during her dramatic exit as his wife. As she began sobbing, I held her, trying to comfort her sorrow. I’m here for you, mom.
“We are bankrupt, your stepfather and I, so we have to move. We both got a job in Oklahoma and are leaving Friday, so you will be living with dad.”
In two days she was moving away, out of state, without us. Although for years her behaviors had become increasingly erratic, a slow detachment from her motherly role, I was still blindsided.
Mothers don’t leave.
I thought the cocktail of flesh, spirit, and hormones that hurled me into existence out of her very own body, would always keep her bonded to me. Instincts argued this should never happen. But it was happening. I shushed my pain and ignored the unmooring. Although I didn’t blame myself for her impending…
