Dear Intimacy,

What would you have me know today?

it’s mother’s day today

and this is my mom in 1987ish sleeping in our “magic” chair (magic because when you wiggle the tiny handle on the side of the chair, the foot rest pops up). Her head is laying on my brother’s stuffed dog who he named mutsy and my dad called barfy. she’s covered up by a blanket which zipped into a sleeping bag and a very scratchy, yet warm, wool blanket. both blankets we used throughout my childhood. my dad took this photograph, and i love how he didn’t wake her up. he made the photograph, just how she is. i think i learned how to be a documentary photographer from my dad.

this is a photograph my friend marla took yesterday when her and her daughter came to the opening of my Mothering without a Mother exhibition at MAUD gallery in Edmonton. i’m exhibiting 12 photographs which tell my story of my experience mothering without my mother. i had to learn, really learn, how to be a mom after my mom died. before she died, i felt like we were mothers together.