Kiss Me Goodnight: Stories And Poems By Women Who Were Girls When Their Mothers Died

by Ann O'Fallon (editor), Margaret Noonan Vaillancourt (Editor)

Losing your mother when very young is a devastating experience. The authors featured in Kiss Me Goodnight recall the lost moments they shared with their mothers, exploring their feelings, longings, and how they have learned to cope with loss through their adult lives. Unlike other books on motherlessness, KMG reveals the experience through stories, poems, and essays giving an intimate and highly personal view of mother loss. These women are courageous. They write vivid and haunting descriptions of the cancer, suicide, alcoholism, accidents, Nazis, and other agents of death that killed their mothers. They also capture the sweet memories of their mothers -- the color and smell of their clothes, the taste of the food they prepared, the light on their faces, the texture of their hair, and the memory of their kisses. Kiss Me Goodnight includes a collection of 25 short stories and essays and 72 poems written by 52 authors. Their work was chosen by a panel of reviewers who read hundreds of submissions from all over the United States - submissions that came from one tiny ad in a national poetry magazine.The majority of these women, who range in age from 15 to 80-plus, are published poets and short story writers. The works are presented in alphabetical order by last name of author and are interspersed with photographic images of some of the authors with their mothers.

221 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ann O'fallon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am one of the editors of this book. I had a life altering experience collecting the works in this motherloss anthology. All the contbuting authors experienced the death of their mothers when they were girls, just like Margaret and I. Getting to know these motherless daughters, meeting more at the readings we have done, and hearing from women who have read the book has created a sense of belonging to a great circle of women who share this profound loss.
The collection of stories and poems all speak from the heart, without interpretation or analysis. If you or someone you know has experienced the death of their mother in childhood, I would strongly recommend this work. And I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the easiest read.
But stories that NEED to be told and voices that need to be heard.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Approaching this book, a reader has little choice but to bring her own experience to the topic. I think it does not actually matter whether the reader has had the experience of losing a mother. Much like all good literature, indeed all good art, the best of “Kiss Me Goodnight” takes the reader deeply into the experience, and roots them there.

What keeps this book from getting bogged down in a mere repetition of the theme, both on the writing and editing side, is the astonishing specificity of each person's story. While there are certainly threads that keep appearing and subsiding, the writers recall tactile sensations--the touch and color of a favorite blue sweater. The smell of flowers in a hospital room. The waft of their mother's scent, perfumed and natural.

And there are a million lovely little details which bring the women depicted here to stunning life: Christine Bollerud writes of “nervous wads of red, lipstick-stained tissue;” Ruth Jacobs writes of “ginger ale ice cream floats.” In Ruby Faulk's devastating “Rabbit Chase,” her mother barely appears. But the child in the story experiences what must be, to her, unfathomable events, and she is utterly untethered; the ghost of loss hangs over the whole piece, until the literally breath-taking ending.

And while there is sentiment, there is very little sentimentality. The writers are unsparing of themselves and their mothers, and thus reveal them to be three-dimensional and all-too-human. And it is in this way that they call their mothers back; summon more than a spirit, letting the memories and recollections take them into unexpected discovery and revelation, in sadness and joyful remembrance, and allow the women portrayed here to truly live, again, on these pages.

[Caterina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The publication of this book was the occasion of possibly the most moving gathering of a community of healing that I have ever experienced. At a public reading in Massachusetts, after the contributors had read their stories and poems, the audience came alive, joining in and sharing their own stories. One audience member said that after her mother's death, her father forbade her ever to mention her mother again - and this - this very reading - was the first time she had ever opened up and shared her story with anyone. Many others in the audience nodded and murmured in agreement. Even those whose families were more open were profoundly moved.

These stories and poems - by accomplished writers - are honest, powerful, and as varied as the different experiences of infants, girls, and young women whose mothers had died slowly or quickly, by illness, accident, murder, or suicide - expressing humor and joyful memories as well as grief, anger, fear and a sense of loss that never diminishes, no matter how much time passes. The book is illustrated by photographs of all the mothers - some with their daughters.

At the reading, I had the honor and privilege of standing in for two of the contributors who were unable to attend: Rina Ferrarelli, my mother, who was caring for my father and unable to travel to the reading, and my mother's friend Savina Roxas, who had passed away shortly before the book was published. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those who lost a mother or another loved one at a young age.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book! The writers paint their pictures as if they were photographs, in sepia. A wonderful book for anyone who has had a mother die when they were young, or who wants to understand better those who have.