When My Mom Lost Her Voice

What broke your heart completely? My mom died when I was 15 after a 10 year battle with

recurring oral cancer (she never smoked a day in her life either, just got unlucky).

Her death was incredibly painful, however there was something that happened a couple of years

prior that I think broke my heart first. Bit of backstory: My mom was a children’s librarian (she also

worked at a children’s bookstore for a while) and one of her favorite parts of her job was getting

to do “story times,” for the kids where she’d read to them and they’d do activities she prepared etc.

For as long as I knew her she’d read to me and my sister, sung us lullabies, and was always there

for advice or encouragement or any other reason we had for talking with her. Words are a very