Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul

I did not intend for this story to be published.  Through a flood of tears, I wrote a version of this the day after my mother passed away.  Sitting at her word processor, in her home office, the words flew from my heart, through my fingers onto her keyboard.  This is her story, as told to me and through my observations as her daughter.  She was my best friend, my mentor and the only human who knew me before I was born. The mother/child womb connection is real.

What I wrote that day became her eulogy.  Mom experienced life for a short time as an orphan, so it was befitting to hold her memorial in an orphanage. Having become a world renown newspaper columnist, book and magazine author and public speaker, it was no surprise that the guest list included writers from everywhere.  One was Bud Gardener, a fellow author and friend of my mother, had also been the Dean of my college.  After I’d presented my mother’s eulogy, he approached me with a question; “Could you shorten that a bit and email it to me?  I’d like to include your mom’s story in an anthology I’m compiling.”  And that is how this story, HELEN HELP US!, found its way into Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul.