Article May 7, 2012 Issue

'Do you have a mother?'

Lynne Cook

Illustration: Joy Cusack–Staff

Four-year-olds are full of all kinds of questions. What is rain? Why do mice have small feet? Do you have a mother?

I’ve been asked all of these questions, and many more, during my career as a preschool teacher, but this last question—Do you have a mother?—was posed to me just days after my mom had passed away. Even so, my immediate answer was a definite, “Yes.”

After school that day, I thought back over my student’s innocent question and my affirmative reply. Had I told the truth to this little one? Yes, of course, I reasoned. My mom had passed on, but I did not feel for one minute that I had been deprived of my Mother.

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