Naleighna Kai's Literary Cafe Magazine NK Literary Cafe 2018 Mother's Day Issue | Page 20

To Celebrate ... or Not
I canceled the holiday known as Mother’s Day
twelve years ago when my mother died. End of
story. Well, sort of.
I was a mother of four, but after she left, there
was no longer a need to celebrate a day that
made me remember that I no longer had one.
Friends and family told me that wasn’t fair to
myself or my kids as they wanted to celebrate
me for being a great mother. I understood their
point, but I just wasn’t into it.
Before my mom’s passing, that special day
always began with mother making a dinner
that had all the fixings, which preceded a
family gathering with drinks, talking crap to one
another, and exchanging gifts. These were the
best times, and I looked forward to them. Until
she died.
So, for the next six years after she passed,
that special day started with buying roses and
taking them down to the lake where my mom
once went fishing. Then I would sit on the bank
dropping petal by petal into the water before
returning, empty-handed to my home where I’d
lay in bed and cry off and on. Sounds like fun
right? Well, that routine became something I
didn’t look forward to, so I put my energy into
penning a book about my feelings. Simple,
right? Not really because I was afraid to show
that side to my readers—the melancholy side,
the side that did not match up with the strong,
courageous, and adventurous woman I have
Kisha Green
become. I battled with myself for five long years
on whether to let the world in on my experiences. I
can be my own worst enemy when it comes to the
writing side of life, but I finally stopped hosting that
pity party and sending out invites for others to join
in.
To date, the book is complete but still unpublished.
This time, I challenged myself and set a date. So,
it’s coming in 2019, along with my fiction novel that
I mentioned in last month’s issue.
Now, I do celebrate Mother’s Day—and I do mean
celebrate. This year, I’ll be on the sunny shores
of South Beach, sipping a drink with an umbrella
straw, all while knowing that my mom is very proud
of me and my achievements. I find ways where I no
longer dread the day but embrace it and everything
that it stands for—a recognition of women who have
played a major role in a child’s life.
I will say this though, I still get a little emotional
when I pass people as they’re buying Mother’s Day
cards. Our routine, when she was on this side of
life, was to exchange beautifully written cards as
part of an understanding—she was my mother, and
I was now someone’s mother. There’s a beauty in
the continuation of life.
I hold to the fact that I will see her again, but for now,
she lives on through me. With that thought in mind,
in the words of Heavy D, everything’s copasetic.
Kisha Green is a literary consultant, promoter, blogger and social media enthusiast who loves
everything about literary. This mother of four resides in New Jersey who enjoys fine champag-
ne and sushi in between reading and writing.
www.kishagreen.com and http://www.myliteraryjewels.com
20 | NKLC Magazine