Reading · learning to dance with stone

Today marks the third anniversary of my adoptive mum Helen’s passing. I’ve been thinking of her, and now and then an old memory surfaces… one she shared with me years ago, about an incident when i was a baby. I have no recollection of it, but from her telling, i know it was traumatic, especially for her. While sketching today, i felt moved to draw myself from this memory of hers. (sorry, i know the eyes turned out a little creepy💦) If you can’t read the words in the below art, see below…

words printed on above drawing…
mum told me once, when i was a baby, she burned herself bad.
she was melting the ice in our fridge freezer.
she’d just lifted me from the floor, set me in my high chair.
then she slipped and the boiling water splashed all down the front of her body.
she said it hurt like fire and had to go to the hospital!
“whew! that was close,” she told me. if i’d still been on the floor, i might’ve been a goner.
i don’t remember it, but i’m sure part of me must’ve felt it too…some silent scream buried way deep, like a piece of me flying off to stay safe.
thank you dear mum for loving me + watching out for me… x (((💜)))

and, a wee poem (wip)…

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

up and away
mum said
the water was
boiling hot when
it spilled, fire bit
  her skin red scalding, searing!
she had just picked me up and
put me back in my highchair
thank the dear goddess, for her
  i may have been a goner.
i think part of me may have jumped up and away
flew through the air, an igniting spark
i wonder, did i fully come back?
  did you dear mum?
though
i know that part of me truly
rested within the belly, the arms
of our sweet mother earth.
thank you dear mum, thank
  you.
who is remembered, lives—deep in our hearts x (((💜)))

remembering dear mum

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