Lao Lao and Helen

A Tribute to My Lao Lao

By Helen Xiaomo Johnson When Chinese American women think of matriarchs in their families, they often think of the sentimental Joy Luck Club stereotype or of Amy Chua’s “tiger mother.” However, my Lao Lao was neither.  She was a fierce Beijinger born in the 1940s who could be both strong and warm, like the Nai […]

In the image of my mother

By: Kashiana Singh In the image of my mother I can bask in the sunshine of of watching my mother halt her day— after she was done carving meaning into our lives as she etched our days with syntax of lunch boxes with storytelling under whirring fans with petulant warmth of a fresh casserole with […]

Head Up. Heart Strong.

By Meg Naughton My mother (right) and I during our last trip together. Seattle will always hold a special place in my heart. Someone close to me told me right after my mom was diagnosed with cancer to get ready to see the beauty that life has to offer. It sounded ridiculous and insane at the […]

Distinctly American

By Alexandra Torrez I wonder if my mother is disappointed in me for not wanting children. I wonder if my grandmother and her mother and her mother’s mother would be disappointed in me for not choosing the life they have chosen. I wonder if they would understand my desire not to ever get married or, […]

Me and The Little Girl Inside Me

By Janice Lobo Sapigao “Every woman has a grave deep inside her.” – Michelle ‘Mush’ Lee When we buried my father, my mother buried her feelings for him. When she did, we all did. To this day, she hides telling my brother, William, and me of the history of her love with and for him. […]

Release your emotions

By Vivian Fumiko Chin I don’t think I’ve ever heard my mother laugh out loud, although I could be wrong because a few years ago she must’ve seen a PBS special, and she said she liked watching George Carlin, even though she hates cursing. But I didn’t watch it with her so I didn’t hear […]

A Peculiar Good Fortune

By Evelyn I. Rodriguez I hate the idea of starting a story about my mom with her being dead.  But she is.  And for the past ten years, that fact is the first thing that’s come to mind whenever anyone—whether they know this fact or not—has asked about her.   The consensus at her wake and […]

On Being Raised by a Single Mother

By Trish Broome This story originally appeared in Mixed Nation on July 30, 2014. The most recent picture with the author and her mother. Every time that I get the urge to buy something, I think about the wise words that my mother told me years ago when I went off to college: “Credit cards are […]

미인  “A Beautiful Woman”

By Christine Seung-Eun Chai The author’s oma: Lee, Sang Shin (c. 1964) My mother didn’t learn about beauty, femininity, Korean 10-step skincare regimens, or even womanhood from her mother. Instead, she gleaned snippets of beauty advice from her father.  Haraboji (grandfather) believed that make-up deterred from real beauty and that the best enhancement to a […]