“The Mother of Another….”
A group of twenty-somethings
gathered in a mountain town for a wedding. Joy and anticipation fill the air.
Stories began, all kinds of stories: adventurous, scary, light-hearted. A young
man reaches deep to tell a story about the brother he misses. Close friends
know the brother’s been dead for years. The story recounts fond memories of the
outdoors they loved: fishing, mile-long bicycle wheelies, 4-wheeling, and an
old beat up Ford truck that muscled through the woods & sprayed mud
everywhere in its wake. When the story ends… a brief hush falls upon the group
until the air is once again alive with memories of the next storyteller. The
brother though, slips away noticed only by one. He is hoping not to betray a
sadness that is welling within. In the shadows of the setting sun, the tears
that begin to form are private…spotted only by the one. She’s the “mother of
another”. She sees the signs of sadness and her heart goes out to the brother
who’s distanced himself from his friends. A sob, a shudder of sorrow threatens
to spasm upon his back. All this, she takes in. Then, without hesitation, she
has him wrapped up tightly in her arms. They don’t really know one another. And
yet, in this offering of comfort, the brother’s sorrow bursts forth fully, uncontained
and unabashed. Until tonight, he’d said little about the brother he missed so
much. Tonight, the good memories and the sadness of loss, met head on. The mother
said nothing, only squeezed him tightly & gently patted his back. For a moment,
he was lost and broken, until “the mother of another” shared the medicine that
almost always cures everything… the touch of loving kindness.
