Understanding Mama on Mother’s Day: Sunday Photo Fiction Challenge

As Ginny walked the red-berries covered path to her dead mother’s old house on Mother’s Day, she hoped to learn something about her mother. She found a picture of her mother as a cheerleader! How beautiful she was and so full of life! What had turned this vivacious young woman into a reclusive enigma whose best friends were bottles of bourbon?

It had to have been a pain deep enough to steal the soul and make any attempt at a normal life impossible. She must have suffered an event so traumatic that she had to drink to blot out all but her working hours.

As tears flowed, Ginny felt such compassion for this woman whose breasts had once nourished her, but whose lack of touch and communication had nearly destroyed her sense of value and worth. Maybe she had loved Ginny after all, but didn’t know how to show it.

On this Mother’s Day, Ginny finally understands, one mother to another, that her mother had done the best that she could. She looked up and said, “Thank you, Mama! May you find the peace denied to you on this earth. I love you, too!”

Happy Mother’s Day to all. Written for The Sunday Photo Fiction Challenge from Susan Spaulding, a story of 200 words or less, using the photo prompt given.