Que Será, Será

Last Sunday, we offered a letter from a daughter to her mother, and today, we have a loving mother's letter to her daughter. After reading TMQ with her book club, Kim's mom Dianne Askew felt inspired to write this moving letter to her. Thanks, Dianne, for agreeing to share it.

Hi Kim,
I really enjoyed The May Queen. When the book group decided to read it, the joke was that we didn't remember our thirties. However, once I figured out what years they were, it all came back to me. It was interesting to me to think about it.

When I turned 29 it was the worst birthday of my life. I was so down and depressed, I wanted to stay in bed all day. But I couldn't for obvious reasons. When I turned 30 I had 2 children and so many dreams. I wanted to be a writer and more than once had started the great American novel. Of course, with so many interruptions and moves, everything got lost in the shuffle. The efforts probably wouldn't have amounted to anything anyway, but the dream was fun. By the time I was thirty five, I was a stay-at-home mom again after a brief stint working in an insurance office in Germany. By the time I was thirty six I had an interesting job in a warehouse office in Lubbock, Texas, and was still there by my fortieth birthday.

Who knew that I would spend 10 years teaching high school business subjects and then move on to where I am now. The writing I do is procedure and training manuals. I also do some training. Not very creative, but I like to think, important.

When we discussed The May Queen this week at our meeting, we commented on how the idea of children or not was a central theme, and how different it was in our time. Having a family was pretty much a given, and our lives didn't revolve as completely around our children as it seems to with mothers now. I mean that our decisions were based on what was best for the children and how our time was spent but it wasn't the spiritual bond that it seems to be now. Everyone had a different 2 or 3 that were their favorites, and we didn't agree on which ones were our least favorites.

With all of us being tough critics and having different criteria for judging a book, the response was pretty special, I thought. With 7 members present we had 5 2-thumbs up and 2 1-up 1-down.

I am so glad that you are able to make a living with your writing and live in the city you love. I wish you continued success in your job, your freelancing, and the books that are in your head and in your heart.

Love,
Mom