Life is Good

Reading The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio—How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less took me back to my own childhood. There were differences, of course. There were only five of us, mom didn't win any contests and we were raised Lutheran, not Catholic. But there were also similarities: we didn't have much money, our family had challenges that weren't talked about at the time (though ours came in the form of emotional breakdowns rather than alcoholism) and we had remarkable moms whose goodness and indomitable spirits seemed to transcend just about anything. I was amazed at the author's recollection of events until I thought about those nine siblings—what a wealth of information. And at the end of the book, the author reveals that her mother kept good records of all her contest entries, along with family memorabilia and news clippings...

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Not to diminish Ms. Ryan's hard work writing a fantastic book (good enough to be made into a movie starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson), but after a few decades it's hard to recollect some of those memories all by yourself. Especially if they're unpleasant, you've managed to push them down, and you're not even sure you want to resurrect them. So to have the collective memory of all those siblings—how fortunate for her and for me.

When I googled the author, I was reminded of why I'm so anxious to get Mom's story written down. Ms. Ryan died of cancer in 2007, five years after her book was published and a year after the movie came out, at age sixty. We just don't know, do we, how long we have? So I've been reinvigorated to write more about Mom. I feel our son and his cousins deserve to know what a good person Mom was. Before those memories are as good as gone. (Check out my STORIES page for a couple of short stories about Mom.)