Write about your mom.
My mother is originally from a small town in Southern Mississippi. Her family moved around some as she was growing up. In addition to various other places in mississippi, she and my grandparents spent some time in Houston, TX.
She was severely injured in an accident as a child. With long hospitalizations, she really missed most of what would have been her first grade year in school. She had to repeat the grade she was in, resulting in her graduating a year later than she normally would have.
She and my dad coupled up when they were both seventeen. They married at twenty, and were together until his death at 59. She joined my dad at the university he was attending after she graduated high school. My dad had turned down an appointment to the Merchant Marine academy for an opportunity to kill a commie for Mommie in the Army. The war was winding down when he finally finished basic, and his unit was relocated to Okinawa.
This young woman, who’d never been west of Houston, or east of Pensacola, was now in Japan.
It took them a long time to have me. I’ll leave out their struggles; they wanted kids, and weren’t sure it was going to happen. My brother came around a little more than three years later, as she was attending graduate school.
After my dad finally retired from the Army, she settled in to a life of work, and spending time with her family, hoping for grandkids, etc. Then cancer number one for her husband. Get through it, then her eldest son is diagnosed with MS. Then cancer number two for her husband. He’d eventually die during surgery to treat that one. Then both dogs dying within the next six months.
I started writing this earlier today. Hadn’t finished up, but, now mom is over after I took out for her birthday dinner. (And this writing prompt makes sense now….)