Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me

by Whoopi Goldberg

It’s this thing we all have to face, the death of those who knew you the best, the people in your life story.

never doubted that she loved me for exactly who I was. My mom made me believe I could do anything I wanted.

Apparently, we lived in the projects because we were poor, but I didn’t know it.

“I have to be practical. I have two kids. I can’t spend a lot of time crying about what I don’t have.

Kind of like the fun house barrel, my mother never got to stand still for a minute and let someone else handle it all for a while.

talked to my mom on the phone almost every day of my adult life when I wasn’t with her in person.

there was always a special love between my mother and her firstborn,

“Caryn knows that. She knows she doesn’t look like other girls. Caryn looks like herself.

sometimes, you know, we ask questions because we want guidance to hide in instead of thinking for ourselves.”

“There will be something else for you. You weren’t expecting this, but there will be other things. You just have to keep at it.”

“Black Is Beautiful” posters all over New York in the late ’60s and early ’70s,

“Women do this every single day, all day long. What are you crying about?” There’s a reason I only gave birth once.

So I went back to my mom’s house, and I told her, “I don’t like being married.” She said, “Well, maybe it’s because it wasn’t something you wanted to really do.

brought what I wanted, and I didn’t want to bring the rest. I can get what I need here in California. I didn’t want to bring that old life into this new one.”

But what I was doing was different. I was letting something else run my life and take me over.

Having it all is as messy as you can get. You’re going to have consequences for your choices.

There are enough of us here to help her do this if she decides she wants to keep her baby. Because Alex has a choice, which you are always marching for.”

I married three times before realizing I was better off being singular full-time.

When you have children, then you have to expect