What makes a mom ‘good?’ That depends on who’s asking. Motherhood can be a tough gig, from managing a toddler’s intrusive imaginary friends to pretending to feel brave at a child’s hospital bedside. We talked to four formidable moms: Angie Abdou, Harriet Alida Lye, Keiler Roberts and Perdita Felicien, who not only mother with big, beautiful, chaotic love but they write with candour about their fears, hopes and mistakes. Thank you for joining us for The Way We Mom. You can enjoy the episode again here:
Angie Abdou
When Angie Abdou noticed – with surprise and some shame – that her young daughter was paralyzed by fear and shyness, she leapt to a solution that took the two of them on a (literal) uphill journey of overcoming anything that stood in their way. Abdou invites all of us to find the fun: on a ski hill, on a mountain top or (best suggestion we’ve heard in a very long time) with a luxurious, doctor-prescribed forest bath.
Owl’s Nest Books | Shelf Life Books | Calgary Public Library
Harriet Alida Lye
At 15 Harriet Alida Lye was diagnosed with aggressive, natural-killer-cell leukemia. Seventeen years later, and a parent herself, she looks back on the heartache she now realizes her parents experienced as they portrayed faces of calm and courage to their terrifyingly ill child (she had us at “spaghetti Bolognese”). Lye explores how her time in hospital shaped her character and her perspective on life and motherhood.
Owl’s Nest Books | Shelf Life Books | Calgary Public Library
Keiler Roberts
Keiler Roberts’ comic My Begging Chart is a startlingly dead-pan, marvellously poignant look at motherhood and the passing moments of family life, drawn in the artist’s distinctive hand. In conversation, Roberts is funny, unafraid and entirely relatable even in her uniquely difficult experience of facing MS. Here, she discusses the process of her diagnosis and dealing with chronic illness, which entailed a lot of time in bed, lonely and longing for an imaginary friend.
Owl’s Nest Books | Shelf Life Books | Calgary Public Library
Perdita Felicien
Obsessed with wanting her child to be “gritty” and tough, world-champion hurdler Perdita Felicien was transformed by the reality of motherhood when she came to see her daughter, Nova, as a separate individual with her own dreams and challenges ahead of her. In this extra reel, Felicien shares the pain and power behind the moment her mother told her, as she let go of an Olympic dream: “You are the gold.”
Owl’s Nest Books | Shelf Life Books | Calgary Public Library
