Courage

Relationships are risky business. It takes courage to initiate them, mend them, and deepen them. But where does that courage come from? I hadn’t seen or talked with my mom for more than 15 years. Before that, contact with her had been sporadic and always tense. Then, everything turned upside down. One morning, my younger sister, Patt, phoned me. Mom had just called her complaining of shortness of breath. Because of the way Mom sounded, Patt told her to hang up and call an ambulance. Now my sister was asking if I would go with her to visit our mother. When I was eight years old, my parents went through an ugly divorce. My younger sister, brother, and I went to live with our mother. We endured years of Mom’s drinking and abusive behavior before my father finally gained custody of us. My mother remarried and eventually moved to another