Mother

Our Word of the Week, close to my heart and I suppose also close to your hearts, my readers, is mother. One of the mysteries of motherhood is that we’re born not from the body of the big strong father, but from the smaller and gentler body of the mother. And any man who is present when his children are born, as I was, can feel as off-center as the backstage man keeping one hand on the lights while the stars have everyone’s attention. If the father stands guard on the ramparts or in the precincts of hearth and home, it’s so that the mother and her children can be at the heart of it all, in security and peace. If he’s first in the order of law, mother and children are first in the order of ends.

“Mother with Children,” Giuseppe Magni. Public Domain.

If you see a picture of Debra’s Granny and Poppy, you’ll see a regular mountain of a man standing proudly, big belly and all, beside a determined little lady who never reached five feet tall. Yet she was the mother to twelve children — th…