 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
 |
 |
|
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
|
|
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Living Features Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters A mother's love
I was lucky enough to get my fill of my mother's affection and tenderness, for God allowed her to live until I was in my fifties. During all the times when one really needs a mother, and the special quality of the love only she can give, my mother was there for me. I can't imagine what it must be like to grow up without that kind of tenderness -- one must feel an aching void all one's life. Don't believe it if someone says, 'oh, so-and-so was like a mother to me'. This is just a metaphor. No one can really take a mother's place.
Before my mother's death, I had already experienced the loss of someone dear: my father, who passed away when I was 25. Although I was closer to my mother than to him, his death came as an immense shock: this was the first time death had snatched someone from my family. This experience marked me deeply, coming as it did during my formative years.
It is true, as people say, that one only attains maturity with the death of one's mother. As long as she was alive, I depended on my mother for many things -- not for material things, but for emotional support. With her gone, I came to feel that I was truly alone in the world. I had friends, to be sure, and my own family: but the place my mother had occupied was empty forever. Perhaps, though, these are old-fashioned emotions: many young people leave their families as soon as they have finished school, and assume full responsibility for their own physical and emotional welfare. In these cases, the loss of a parent is not such a crushing blow. The world has changed so much...
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
