For some, Mother’s Day is a time to get together and celebrate the person in our life who raised us, who gave us the emotional and physical support we needed, and who continues to inspire us. For others, the day is more complicated and can conjure up feelings of frustration, anger, grief, or even apathy.
All of us have a story to tell about our mother. That story may be about a beautiful relationship that continues grow, while for others it may be a story entirely of absence. Either way, these stories have in some way shaped the person we have become.
Below are five creative nonfiction pieces which explore the diverse range of relationships and experiences we have with our mothers:
Things Moms Say by Mary Roberson Wiygul
What can remain of a relationship that cannot be remembered? A daughter grapples with her mother’s dementia, and the loss of a shared history.
Everything Must Go by Marie Manilla
An elderly mother wakes to find a man she trusted in her room stealing from her. Her adult children are left to deal with the fall out. (March 2018)
Like Momma by Lonette Stayton
A flash piece exploring a single Sunday morning in the author’s life. How do we see our parents now? How did we see them then? (March 2014)
Driving with Mom by Brittany Means
A daughter reflects on the instability of her childhood, and how her relationship with her mother has come to parallel her own adult life. (September 2017)
Matriarch by Alyson Bannister
A reflection on the passage of time, change, and the ways we do and don’t carry the past with us, as seen through the prism of four generations of mothers and daughters. (February 2012)
