Mother A Human Love Story

“An archive of real-life stories about all aspects of human relationships” curated by a man traveling on foot throughout Scotland (BBC Arts). Matt Hopwood set off with just a small bag and a walking stick, no possessions and an open mind to walk many hundreds of miles the length and breadth of the country. He relied entirely on the generosity of strangers for shelter and asked people to tell him their transforming stories. They did. All of these deeply enthralling, profoundly honest stories weave a web of tenderness, connection, compassion and community. For some people their love story will span decades and tell a tale of romantic love evolving through the passing years. Others’ stories express fleeting moments of connection, care, concern. Most love stories are marked by sadness and loss. Some stories are concerned with maternal and paternal love, others with a love of place, a visceral connection with spirit through landscape. Love stories also connect deeply with our identities, in how we belong and how we are welcomed in society. Each story is different. Each beautiful. Each valuable. “A delicately woven tapestry of human life, collected by a stranger who offered an ear to listen without judgment and who has the depth of soul to interpret the complicated layers of love.” —from the foreword by Clare Balding “This thoughtfully presented lexicon of love contains honest accounts from men and women of all ages and offers an antidote to a life where it can be surprisingly hard to say ‘I love you.’”—The Wee Review

Compassion, nurturing and pain are at the heart of everyone's story of mothers and motherhood. In this book, Matt Hopwood presents a selection of deep, powerful stories of and by mothers which were told openly and bravely to him. Women, men, children, teenagers and centenarians tell their experiences of childhood, motherhood, birth, loss, yearning, fear, contentment, love and divinity. They tell of connection with Mother and the Mother instincts that reside in every human being. Together, these stories, from as far afield as the USA, Russia, Taiwan, and Europe as well as the UK, are a gift that help bring us to a deeper understanding of our humanity and the role of the intuitive feminine Mother that is so needed by every one of us.

Matt Hopwood set off with just a small bag and a walking stick, no possessions and an open mind to walk many hundreds of miles the length and breadth of the country. He relied entirely on the generosity of strangers for shelter and asked people to tell him their transforming stories. They did. All of these deeply enthralling, profoundly honest stories weave a web of tenderness, connection, compassion and community. For some people their love story will span decades and tell a tale of romantic love evolving through the passing years. Others' stories express fleeting moments of connection, care, concern. Most love stories are marked by sadness and loss. Some stories are concerned with maternal and paternal love, others with a love of place, a visceral connection with spirit through landscape. Love stories also connect deeply with our identities, in how we belong and how we are welcomed in society. Each story is different. Each beautiful. Each valuable.

Nicky Bell, diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma at age thirteen, died five years later, with his mother and best friend at his side. A Journey of Unconditional Love tells Nicky and Michele’s story, describing the battle with cancer in great detail. However, this book is about more than cancer and its treatment and the fight to survive. It’s about more than a mother and her son who had to face his mortality at such a young age and the despair and anguish that comes in losing that fight. It’s about more than death . . . This book is about life. It’s about how this mother and son approached the everyday moments of life despite the greater story that was playing out around them and was outside of their control. It’s about what each had learned from the other and the influential roles played in their life experiences. It is about how it still affects the life of the one left behind. It’s about the depth of human spirit and the soul’s ultimate survival, along with what the survivor is supposed to do with that energy. The connection between this mother and her son has lived on long after his passing, and it continues to be a force in this mother’s life every day. The inspiration in this story comes from the millions of small everyday moments, the choices made, the words spoken, and the unconditional love that makes such a seemingly senseless experience somehow bearable. This book gives a voice to parents and loved ones, caregivers and patients, those who relate to this loss, and those who know they feel every heartbeat in this story but who also struggle to come to grips with their own experience.

From bestselling author Alan Dean Foster, an exciting early Pip and Flinx novel that shows the origins of a certain boy with special powers—and the mini-dragon that becomes his devoted sidekick. . . . Flinx was just a freckle-faced, redheaded kid with green eyes and a strangely compelling stare when Mather Mastiff first saw him an the auctioneer's block. One hundred credits and he was hers. For years the old woman was his only family. She loved him, fed him, taught him everything she knew—even let him keep the deadly flying dragon he called Pip. But when Mother Mastiff mysteriously disappears, Flinx tails her kidnappers on a dangerous journey. Across the forests and swamps of the winged world called Moth, their only weapons are Pip’s venom . . . and Flinx’s unusual talent.

Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches for Mr. Right.

Jessica is expecting her first child. But why isn't she transformed by maternal feelings? Where is the all-consuming love she's supposed to feel for her child? No-one told her you don't always love your baby. Perhaps its best if Jessica keeps that dark secret to herself for now.

Despite her busy schedule, Carol Burnett always made time for her three young children. But her oldest daughter, Carrie, faltered in adolescence, losing the self-esteem that had fueled her popularity and success in school and hiding her pain in a downward spiral of addiction. As Carrie became lost to drugs, Carol found herself with a daughter in grave danger and a marriage that was bending under the pressure. Carrie eventually broke free from her addiction. Like her mother, she had a wonderful sense of humor and became a successful actress, singer, and writer, even writing a play about Carol's childhood. But tragedy struck again when Carrie was diagnosed with cancer. She died at the young age of thirty-eight, leaving a legacy of kindness, creativity, and joy along with a short story that mirrors her own journey, published for the first time in this book. In Carrie and Me, Carol Burnett shares her personal diary entries and correspondence revealing her anguish as a mother of a troubled teenager, the epiphanies that helped her help her family, and the grief and then the hope she felt after Carrie's death. Through Burnett's inimitable voice, we get a portrait of an unforgettable young woman that will bring hope to anyone struggling with raising or losing a child.