If you were to compare our family with other families back when I was a child, you would have said there’s one strange difference. It was how our Mama reacted when any of us got hurt.
When my five siblings and I were children, Mama’s reaction probably would seem strange to others. But it’s just the way she reacted when someone she loved got hurt. We never knew anything else.
If one of us got hurt, we knew Mama would have to collect herself first and then she would be okay. We understood, because we knew how much she loved us —it was just how it affected her.
For instance: when my youngest sister was five, she was riding her pogo stick on the sidewalk. Suddenly, the pogo stick went off the sidewalk and into the grass, stopping it immediately. She came down hard on her chin and tore the inside of her lower lip, to the gum line beneath her teeth. With blood trickling down her chin, she came running inside, crying.
Mama took one look at her, saw the blood, knew she was in pain, and ran out the back door to the alley. Once she collected herself, probably 30 seconds, she came back in and expertly handled the situation.
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