Thank you. 🙏 I felt that got at something right. She loved the ballet, and considered a career as a ballerina at one point (she was 5'8" or thereabouts. that might have been a vertical impediment). This was a part of her life I had zero visibility into, one of those parental pre-lives.
I feel as though I might lose my mind if all this doesn’t get turned into a film. I so need the image of your Mother sitting above and kicking through white smoke to exist on a screen.
Bless your Mother, what a woman. I so wish I’d been able to meet her.
Apologies. It really isn't easy to help readers navigate anything serialized, although I'm sure that there is a better way to do this, because you're not the first to get confused here. If you go to the "365" section at the top of my home page and click on that, you'll see a bunch of pieces. This memoir is a collection of 4-5 pieces. Each is bundled under different Roman numeral chapters and a common title. If you look for the Threshold series there, you can navigate properly. I'm glad you're pulled in. Thank you for joining me here. 🙏
Adam, as you know, she rarely let any of us see her excruciating pain-but we saw glimpses and were scared for you. Sometimes it seemed like she did not eat to be sure you did!
I had been wondering why you were in Bergamo, and now we know - how incredibly brave to go in the first place, and then to face such a serious illness as a single mother in a foreign country!
I really don't know about the 1000 word/5 mins thing - mine is closer to 1500 but I will go over if I must, but some people really bust out, and I'll go along with them if I'm engaged...
You are in very good company. She would be delighted to know she was making a friend (in a fashion) after she's gone. That was a lovely sentence to read.
I'm coming in a little late to this sorry Adam, but it's really captivating and moving. I shall be reading the rest, both before and after this part. Your mother sounds incredibly strong.
Thank you, Nathan. That's a balm, a joy, and a relief.
Relieved on the word count. In my mind's eye, I see readers just bailing out (and I don't think this is inaccurate.) Some of this is because my own attention reading has gotten so much worse. This site has helped settle me down a bit with longer work again as a reader. I'm strongly considering once I've published a series like this, to consolidate all of the pieces into a single post, but I also hope substack finds a way to manage serialized fiction a little better because there's a lot of it, and it could benefit from an easier way to navigate. I'm rambling.
Not rambling at all. I completely agree. Some better navigation tools (e.g. a sidebar, showing chapters/linked posts) would go a long way to helping serialised works work better here.
I also worry about attention spans, but the clean interface of Substack on the app and on desktop helps a lot. I think some degree of people will inevitably bail if it's beyond the 5min mark (probably even shorter 😬), but those who want to read, who like to read, and truly appreciate a writer's words will be the ones who read through no matter the length.
This is beautiful and captivating, and for what it’s worth, I was pulled in and would not have been able to stop reading it even if it had been over 5000 words.
"My mother had been a ballet dancer. When the world started to spin, she knew how to pick a spot on the wall." This gold nugget you unearthed.
Thank you. 🙏 I felt that got at something right. She loved the ballet, and considered a career as a ballerina at one point (she was 5'8" or thereabouts. that might have been a vertical impediment). This was a part of her life I had zero visibility into, one of those parental pre-lives.
Adam, Adam, Adam... Here there be gold.
I feel as though I might lose my mind if all this doesn’t get turned into a film. I so need the image of your Mother sitting above and kicking through white smoke to exist on a screen.
Bless your Mother, what a woman. I so wish I’d been able to meet her.
Thanks, Chloe! (An exclamation mark isn't right there, but neither is a period.)
She would have loved your writing by the way. No doubt she would have consumed the entirety of your work by breakfast.
I’m instantly pulled into this story, your delivery. I must go back now and start from the beginning.
...where DO I begin? I see chapters but also other titles. Are they all part of this serialized memoir?
Apologies. It really isn't easy to help readers navigate anything serialized, although I'm sure that there is a better way to do this, because you're not the first to get confused here. If you go to the "365" section at the top of my home page and click on that, you'll see a bunch of pieces. This memoir is a collection of 4-5 pieces. Each is bundled under different Roman numeral chapters and a common title. If you look for the Threshold series there, you can navigate properly. I'm glad you're pulled in. Thank you for joining me here. 🙏
No apologies necessary! Thanks for the clarification. ;)
Adam, as you know, she rarely let any of us see her excruciating pain-but we saw glimpses and were scared for you. Sometimes it seemed like she did not eat to be sure you did!
She loved you, Helen. Thank you for being such a great friend to her then and later on. (She would have thanked me for passing that along.) ❤️
I had been wondering why you were in Bergamo, and now we know - how incredibly brave to go in the first place, and then to face such a serious illness as a single mother in a foreign country!
I really don't know about the 1000 word/5 mins thing - mine is closer to 1500 but I will go over if I must, but some people really bust out, and I'll go along with them if I'm engaged...
Thank you, Troy. It was certainly brave. Good and bad it was my first family’s “plant the flag” year. 🙏
I love your mother.
And thank you a second time so you know I mean it-mean it. 😂
❤️❤️❤️
You are in very good company. She would be delighted to know she was making a friend (in a fashion) after she's gone. That was a lovely sentence to read.
BTW I don't know if you edited this post re: the link to your Mom's school, but it's not here - I had to go back to the email to find it....
fixed. thx.
I'm coming in a little late to this sorry Adam, but it's really captivating and moving. I shall be reading the rest, both before and after this part. Your mother sounds incredibly strong.
PS no issue on the word count for me.
Thank you, Nathan. That's a balm, a joy, and a relief.
Relieved on the word count. In my mind's eye, I see readers just bailing out (and I don't think this is inaccurate.) Some of this is because my own attention reading has gotten so much worse. This site has helped settle me down a bit with longer work again as a reader. I'm strongly considering once I've published a series like this, to consolidate all of the pieces into a single post, but I also hope substack finds a way to manage serialized fiction a little better because there's a lot of it, and it could benefit from an easier way to navigate. I'm rambling.
Not rambling at all. I completely agree. Some better navigation tools (e.g. a sidebar, showing chapters/linked posts) would go a long way to helping serialised works work better here.
I also worry about attention spans, but the clean interface of Substack on the app and on desktop helps a lot. I think some degree of people will inevitably bail if it's beyond the 5min mark (probably even shorter 😬), but those who want to read, who like to read, and truly appreciate a writer's words will be the ones who read through no matter the length.
That's my ramble, hehe.
This is beautiful and captivating, and for what it’s worth, I was pulled in and would not have been able to stop reading it even if it had been over 5000 words.