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Yesterday

Feeling weepy after reading Dan Savage's column about his mom who died the other day, and then I saw a beautiful and heart wrenching movie called Yesterday.
Yesterday (Leleti Khumalo) lives in Rooihoek, a remote village in South Africa's Zululand. Her everyday life is not easy—there's little money, no modern conveniences, and her husband is away in Johannesburg working as a miner—but she possesses a sunny nature, and takes great joy in her seven-year-old daughter, Beauty (Lihle Mvelase).

The precarious balance of Yesterday's life is suddenly threatened when she is diagnosed with AIDS and must journey afar to understand and confront her illness. Yesterday's primary driving force is Beauty, who is a year away from starting school. Yesterday never had the chance to go to school and she sets her sights on a single goal: to be with Beauty on her first day of class, along with all the other proud mothers...
I am at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and just happened upon the theater that happen to be showing the film for free to medical students and the general public. And now I am all weepy.

My mom was only nine when her mother died. She often said in her joking way, "You'll only ever have one mother, so you're going to have to put up with me." It's odd and wonderful how we carry the people we love with us. After my mother's death in September 2006, I felt so much strength flow into me making me fearless. I miss her more than I can express, but I also feel close to her everyday.
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Carol said…
When you talk about your mom, I get weepy too. I wish my mom was still around, and wish she could understand all that has happened in the past 3 years. I found an old journal that she started in something like 1984? It talked about how she thought that we should REALLY love everyone. That seems to be my theme these days, and how awesome that I can echo her feelings. I also love it when one of my siblings say I do something like she did -
11:07 PM
Peterson Toscano said…
Thank you Carol.
8:59 AM
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