Lynne Hugo > Quotes

“We suffer the threat of breathing in water; we fight the nightmares that would drown us. And just as we feel the deceptive joy of floating, we flex our muscles and learn to kick, propelling ourselves into deeper waters where we can't see the bottom or touch the side.

There, in the deep, we stroke.

Then, surprising ourselves, saving ourselves, we swim. ”
― Lynne Hugo, Swimming Lessons

“We know about this. People are going to say a lot of idiot things to you.” She meant I should remember what it was like when she had the stillbirth and her first husband left her seven months later. Her voice came sort over the phone. She still sounds like herself, hasn’t picked up that Georgia molasses accent. “Just give them the bereavement face and say, ‘Bless your heart.’ Down here they teach girls to say that instead of bullshit. This is one of those times when people crowd in, nothing anyone says is the least comfort, but no one has the sense to know to shut up.”
― Lynne Hugo , The Testament of Harold's Wife

“Come Lord, and lift the fallen bird
Abandoned on the ground;
The soul bereft and longing so
To have the lost be found. The heart that cries—let it but hear
Its sweet love answering,
Or out of ether one faint note
Of living comfort wring. —Tom Merrill”
― Lynne Hugo, The Testament of Harold's Wife