Mother's Day in Prison

Mother's Day is coming up. When Genevieve first went to prison in April 2001 we made plans that I would come to Taycheedah on Mother's Day. So we are in the visiting room and are noticing people bringing in young children. Infants to teenagers. Then it started. The crying, the sobbing, the anguish from the interaction of these mothers and their young children. I can see it as if it were yesterday. One child about four years old had to be physically pried off her mother and th e woman vomited as the child was leaving with her grandmother. Two young teenage twin boys hanging on their mother and sobbing. The visiting area was filled with these sounds. Genevieve and I looked at each other and agreed that I would not come up on Mother's Day again to witness this. That was 16 years ago and we still have our time the week after. She and I talked last night and still brought up what happened that day. Last week when I visited we saw the woman who's four year old daughter is now 20 years old. Genevieve said this girl visits her mother on a regular basis. For whatever reason these women are incarcerated they suffer from the separation with their children and the children suffer from the separation of their mothers. I will see my daughter the weekend of the 20th because that's how she and I deal with Mother's Day...AP