Moon

Goodnight Moon

I have three children, although my oldest is now 25 and married. I had never heard of Goodnight Moon until I married and had 2 more children. My husband loved the book and every night he or I would read books to the kids and always ended with that one. Now that they are 11 and almost 14, the days of reading to them at night have long since gone; but I can still quote from the book...

In the great green room
there was a telephone
and a red balloon
and a picture of
the cow jumping over the moon
and there were three little bears sitting on chairs
and two little kittens
and a pair of mittens
and a little toy house
and a young mouse
and a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush
and a quiet old lady whispering "hush"

Goodnight room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon
Goodnight light and the red balloon
Goodnight bears and goodnight chairs
Goodnight kittens and goodnight mittens
Goodnight clocks and goodnight socks
Goodnight little house and goodnight mouse
Goodnight comb and goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody goodnight mush
and goodnight to the old lady whispering "hush"
Goodnight stars, goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere.

A simple theme and a favorite memory.

The Tenth Daughter of Memory

I was 18 and in trouble.

I don’t think this would’ve happened if Dad hadn’t died in June. I was lonely, did not get along with my mother, took a year off before college and here it was, October, and I was “late” – every teens nightmare. And how do I approach my mother to tell her?

I got up enough nerve to ask her how late I needed to be before I should start to worry. She said at my age if I didn’t have it and if I was sexually active, then I should be worried. Ok, so now I was worried.

They didn’t have pregnancy sticks back then from what I can recall so she had me make an appointment at this unwed mother place “in the city” – where it was confirmed that I was pregnant. Options, options, options – I was told I had a number of options. But for me, being raised a Catholic and my father being a regular church-goer prior to his passing, the only option was to keep the baby.
Epilogue – my son is now 25 years old, married and about to purchase his first home. He was the best thing that ever happened to me and I can’t imagine life without him.

What felt like a trap then turned out to only be a different path.

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