Did you catch Monday's blog featuring Duncan Ryder's short story, Sorry Mom, from the 2010 Anthology "I'd Never Do That"? Maybe you read it before, or maybe it was a new to you story. Or maybe I wasn't able to convince you to read it yet... maybe this excerpt will do the trick! 

I picked this part of the story first because I didn't want to give away the whole story and second because I wanted something that shows the poignancy of this story and Duncan's writing. Enjoy!

Quote

 

My mother was 38 when she had me. A plain, pudgy woman, as she’d been a plain, pudgy girl. In my heart, my mother is the most beautiful, the most loving mother ever – but I’ve seen the pictures. I know what the world sees. I know how she has always seen herself.

The world is a cruel place. That’s what made it all possible: how the world saw her, shaped her possibilities. That’s why a handsome young waiter at a Caribbean resort was able to single her out. Woo her. Make her believe.

My mother’s not stupid. Don’t think that. She is, in fact, smart as hell. She’s a lawyer for God’s sake, a government tax lawyer, a heavyweight. She’s smart and strong and unbearably determined.

If she were not all these things, I would not be here.

But my mother is also a woman, and at that point in her life, she was a very lonely one. A woman who had never known a man’s love. If she thought this Caribbean waiter her one chance, her only chance – can you blame her for taking it?

I can’t.

 

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