 It’s November, and once again I’m participating in another Yeah Write writing challenge. If you’ve been a long-time reader (at least a year) you know that last November I participated in a writing challenge that involved writing a post every single day during the month of November (yes, all the days, even Thanksgiving). There were […]  I woke on a Monday in April, 1965 on a strange new planet. No one had come to wake me for school, and I’d had a restless night, waking twice, each time going into my parents’ room, and finding the bed made, and no one there. Both times I called downstairs for them, the first […]  Pan roasted; just saying it makes me want whatever is going into that pan. Pan roasting evokes warmth, and comfort, texture and depth. I am a huge fan of pan roasting, and the cold weather, and the seasonal produce are a perfect match for this easy and aromatic technique. Lately I have made […]
 I think the second the first leaf hits the ground anywhere in the US an alarm sounds everywhere, and pumpkin flavored everything hits the shelves, the coffee shops, and donut emporia; IT’S PUMPKIN SEASON! People across the land rejoice. Social media lights up like, well, like a Jack O Lantern. There are plenty of […]
 About one hundred years ago, when I was growing up television food programming included two chefs Julia Child, seen on PBS stations, and Graham Kerr, known as The Galloping Gourmet. I remember my mom being an avid fan of Kerr’s, he was goofy and charismatic, and British, and drank copious amounts of wine. That was […]
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alisa/icescreammama - so sad for little you.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Alisa, thanks. I remember the first time I was with a friend and her 7 year old, and I was struck at how little they are.
Michelle - How heartbreaking. I am mourning for the child that was you. I love this story, it’s beautifully written.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Michelle, thank you for the kind words. I am a bit shocked at what posting this story is doing to me today. I keep reminding myself to breathe!
Jacqueline Bryant Campbell - The voice of little-girl you comes through very clearly. It’s beautifully written.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Thank you Jacqueline.
Robbie - I am so sorry. This is very vivid and haunting.
Rick Egbert - A touching entry today.. Thoughts are with you today… Much love from the Egbert family??
nrlowell@comcast.net - Rick, thanks, this couldn’t have come at a better time, or from a better person.
Kristin Shaw - Thanks for sharing your story. Poignant.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Kristin, so nice to hear from you! I hope you liked it, though like may be an odd word…
Vanessa D. - I’m sorry for your loss at such a young age. I can only imagine how confusing the period of mourning must have been.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Vanessa, thank you. It actually lasted about 20 years…
Asha - You’ve told your story so beautifully, so poignantly. My heart goes out to that little 7 year old you.
soapie - sorry to read of your loss; it’s devastating to lose a parent at any age, but i imagine it was even more difficult as a child, since your mother had no illness and there was no preparation for it. so tragic.
beautiful post.
Asha Rajan - You’ve told your story so beautifully, so poignantly. My heart goes out to that little 7 year old you.
Chasing Joy - Thank you for sharing. Very sorry you lost your mom so young.
Jan Wilberg - You brought back memories of my mother suddenly being gone, take to the hospital for one thing or another. The bed still being made in the middle of the night or too early in the morning was the big ominous clue. But my mother came back each time. You describe the 7 year old’s view so absolutely perfectly. The point of Yeah Write, I think, is to find pieces like this.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Jan, thanks. I don’t think there is much that is scarier to a young kid that their mom being gone, for 5 minutes, or forever! To one degree or another, we all know that feeling.
Rowan - I love the way you structured your story to convey the aching numbness and disorientation you were feeling. It’s sorrowful without ever falling over the edge into maudlin.
Megan Ferrell - I like how you compared the other side of your mother’s death with a strange planet. One jarring, monumental event like that *does transform everything around you until it all looks strange and foreign. This is my life?
You really evoked that feeling here. Well done.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Megan,
Thanks. That seven year old is still quite present in me when I start poking at those memories.
yeah write #186 weekly writing challenge: week one picks for the November writing contestyeah write - […] food can fix that by nancy […]
Jen - This is so heart shattering! 🙁 You did a wonderful job telling your story, and having us feel your pain. I’m so sorry.
Colleen - Nancy, thank you for sharing your story! I also lost my mom, suddenly at age 13 (She was only 30) and similarly lost my dad as well in the process. So I really related to your story and my heart is with you. Thank you.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Colleen, I’m so sorry you went through that. No doubt, like me it has shaped who you are today, in a million ways. My heart is with you as well.
The Smack » Chefs Last Diet - […] say how that smack impacted my relationship with my mother, or if we ever acknowledged it. She died the following April, and it was Katie who comforted and took care of me while my father went to […]
Where is My Resilience? » Chefs Last Diet - […] Hope Edelman’s Motherless Daughters, and finally stopped questioning why I couldn’t get over my mother’s death thirty years earlier. I finally understood there are experiences that are so profound and so […]
No Fathers’ Day » Chefs Last Diet - […] and infuriating, funny and distant, and we never managed to repair our relationship (fractured when my mother died) enough to have a single meaningful or emotionally connected […]