Everywhere
I remember when I received the news that my grandmother had passed away. I was living overseas when the phone rang that night. When I took the receiver, I heard my Dad's normally stoic voice tremble. In North Carolina, his mouth formed the words, "Momma died today," and in my dark office in Wales, my ear passed the news on to my brain. My first reaction, being a Momma myself, was one of sadness and sympathy toward the man so far away at the other end of that receiver. I think I said, "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?' Losing a Momma creates a complicated, ragged void since memories of mom are often tied to all parts of ourselves. My grandmother had been wasting away for a few years. After living a selfless life, she faded away painfully slowly before our eyes, so I did not feel much sadness on her behalf. I think we all were more than a bit relieved that she had been released from what her life had become in the end. The last tim...
