Libby

“I spend so much time trying to outrun who I once was that I sometimes throw away the notion that there are pieces of me worth salvaging. Like the part of me that always pauses for a sunset. The part that watches fireworks, lips parted in awe. The part that walks the shoreline and collects shells for my mother. The part that tries to catch soapy bubbles on my fingertips. The part that hasn't eaten meat in years, but still thinks of my childhood home whenever I smell bacon.”
― Alicia Cook, Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back

“I only know the stony plain, wandering, and the gradual loss of hope. I am the sterile offspring of a race about which I know nothing, not even whether it has become extinct. Perhaps, somewhere humanity is flourishing under the stars, unaware that a daughter of its blood is ending her days in silence. There is nothing we can do about it.”
― Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men

“Intellectually, I knew her criticisms of my body said more about her than they did about me; I knew they reflected the wider cultural values we’d both been steeped in all our lives that equated thinness with female beauty and, indeed, value. But they cut me to the core anyway. They heightened my sense of loss and longing for my mom, which was particularly acute in the years when I was becoming a mother myself. She would’ve said I was beautiful. She would’ve commiserated and assured me I was doing great. She would’ve told me everything was going to be okay, regardless of my weight. She would’ve been everything that Joan was not.”
― Cheryl Strayed, Two Women Walk into a Bar

“I've gotta something more important to offer, something I'm sure mom cares about more than anything.

"Mommy, I am... so skinny right now. I'm finally down to 89 pounds."

I'm in the ICU with my dying mother, and the thing that I'm sure will get her to wake up, is the fact that in the days since mom has been hospitalized, my fear and sadness have morphed into the perfect anorexia motivation cocktail, and finally I have achieved mom's current goal weight for me: 89 pounds.”
― Jennette McCurdy, I'm Glad My Mom Died