It’s never just a story. It’s the way the words are laid across the page. The volume and pace at which the words leave a senior’s lips. The moments when the lips purse in thought, or in mischief. All the details that flood back too fast to get back onto paper. The people who are at the table around you when you share your story. Or the person sitting right next to you. When Aileen, whom my senior buds and I all call “Mommy” in class, read this story out loud, Gloria whom we all call “Daughter”, was sitting next to her, beaming. Daughter has always accompanied Mommy to class ever since they first joined. Daughter loves Mommy, and Mommy loves Daughter. So much. A story is everything that is on paper, and everything that is not. This may not read like a story about love. But it most definitely is.
Aileen Jefferson
8.9.2012
10 Year Old Breaks Record
And that’s exactly true.
Are you interested?
“Mother I want to learn how to swim.”
“You have the rest of your life dear”
“Mother, I want to learn how to swim, now!”
And before I knew it, not the swimming teacher, but her father had accomplished the job.
The next day at the swimming pool as I yelled, “Stay out of the deep end!” my daughter continued swimming across the entire pool.
I was startled.
I held my breath.
She did the impossible, not only across the pool, but the deep end of the pool.
What happened next, I don’t know. I fainted.
