Someday

     You know a book is a keeper when you start to get choked up while just reading it in the isle of the store! I had recently had Charlotte and was in the unique position of experiencing a new baby while my oldest daughter, Madeleine, was on the cusp of womanhood. Holding Charlotte, I remembered baby Madeleine and knew what it felt like to blink and have your child be nearly grown.
 

Someday

Alison McGhee 2007

pictures by Peter Reynolds

     This book, so simply written and illustrated, captures that mother-feeling of loving a child, watching them grow, the dreams you have for them, and the passage of time. 

When I found this book I had to buy several copies to send to friends and (of course!) my mom. I think it's interesting that each of us is affected by a different part or line of the story. For me having daughters it was particularly poignant knowing (or hoping) that my own girls will someday become mothers themselves.  So this page was the one that did me in:

Someday I will watch you brushing your child's hair.

Someday, a long time from now, your own hair will glow silver in the sun.  And when that day comes, love, you will remember me.

When my grandmom was in a nursing home at the close of her life (nearly 80 years old), she would talk about her own mother.  Here she had been a wife, had her own children, raised a family, endured trials, had strength and at this time, old and grey haired, it was her mother that she thought of.