Iryna

“I'll tend to her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter. Nobody will ever get my milk no more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else--and the one time I did it was took from me--they held me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby.... I know what it is to be without the milk that belongs to you; to have to fight and holler for it, and to have so little left.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“I wrote your name across my heart

So I would not forget.

The way I felt when you were born

Before we'd even met

 

I wrote your name across my heart

So your heart beats with mine

And when I miss you most I trace

Each loop and every line

 

I wrote your name across my heart,

So we could be together

So I could hold you close to me

And keep you there forever.”
― Amy Harmon, Making Faces

“Beloved, she my daughter. She mine. See. She come back to me of her own free will and I don't have to explain a thing.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“It's not about choosing somebody over her. It's about making space for somebody along with her.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved