Five mothers of all ages from around the U.S. will perform a special act in honor of Mother’s Day this year. Starting on Monday, May 7, each mother will go public with a letter she wrote to her children.
They’ll do that through my second annual Mother’s Day special right here at letterstomykids.org.
The lineup:
Deirdre Capone of Southwest Florida will tell her four adult children how she feels to be the last living relative of gangster Al Capone still to carry the Capone name.
Sandy Chang, a mother of two in Stockton, CA, will share a letter to her youngest son that reveals how his older brother saved his life through a cord blood transplant.
Faith Tissot, a 40-year-old nurse, will tell why she has written letters to her two children every month since pregnancy. As an adopted child with little knowledge of her own early past – and as a mother who once lost a baby in utero – she explains how motherhood inspired her to contact her birth parents and preserve her own personal family history.
Laura Rossi Totten of New York City will fill us in on how her nine-year-old boy-girl twins recently inspired her to complete a half-marathon, by far the longest she’s ever run.
Annie Powell of Sterling, Virginia will give us the lowdown on how, after bearing a daughter and planning only one more child, she delivered twin boys – and detail the many delights that have ensued.
Deborah Kennedy of Las Vegas will come aboard, too. Though she has no children, she will post a letter to her deceased mother, an abusive former prostitute and drug addict once married to her pimp. It will tell how she and her four brothers and sisters have fared since her death – and to declare, once and for all, her love for her.
Such chronicling among mothers may be a trend. With the ongoing rise of Mommy bloggers, anecdotal evidence suggests that more mothers than ever are writing about their children, in some cases in the form of letters. Social media enables mothers to easily create digital scrapbooks, capturing milestone and minutia alike.
By now you know exactly how I feel about this stuff. We all have something to say to our kids, and we should just say it. But we should also get it in writing. Only then can we truly prevent our memories of family history from being forgotten and irretrievably lost.
Besides, if your children learn what you’ve done with your life, maybe they can better imagine what they can someday achieve. And if they know who you are, maybe they can also discover themselves.
So please share the upcoming guest columns with family, friends and the world at large to help spread the word. After all, mothers (and fathers) who commit to the simple practice of writing down personal family history create a legacy that lasts forever. Thank you.
letterstomykidsdotorg.wordpress.com 