Three Mothers Quotes

“having witnessed your child’s every facial response since the day they were born, their expressions are like words in a book – as legible and clear as sentences on a page.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“it is a gift in life that we do not know what awaits us. If we did, we may not have the strength to bear witness.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“Turning to Jack, she asks how he’s finding the new school, watches him hesitate before he tells her it’s good, he likes it. She can see his desire to reassure her, wishes there was some way to impart to him the truth about motherhood; that, having witnessed your child’s every facial response since the day they were born, their expressions are like words in a book – as legible and clear as sentences on a page. Nicole can sense, immediately, that Jack has not embraced his new school as easily as Nathaniel, that he may still need additional support, and she resolves to call his Head of Year the next time she is allowed access to a phone.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“Guilt tightens around Abby’s throat. ‘Parents don’t have favourites. That’s not how it works.’ She pauses, wonders how honest to be with Clio, decides that secrets have brought nothing but trouble to their family so far. ‘When I got pregnant with you, I remember worrying whether I’d be able to love another child as much as I loved Isla. I told your dad, and he said I was being silly, that millions of people have more than one child and find enough love for them. But I did worry about it. And then you were born, and there was such a rush of love for you. I hadn’t understood it before, but every child opens up a new reservoir of affection inside you that you hadn’t known existed.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“All she wants is for her boys to be happy. For them to be safe and contented and at peace with themselves. It is the most difficult aspect of parenting, she has found: the powerlessness to fashion the world as you would like it to be for your children. Her inability to shield her boys from adversity feels like one of the most inevitable failures of motherhood.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“To lose a child is to be robbed of your trust in the natural order of things: to experience equal parts rage and despair, resentment and disbelief. It is unnatural, outliving your offspring, wrong in every possible way.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“It is the most difficult aspect of parenting, she has found: the powerlessness to fashion the world as you would like it to be for your children.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“anger was now like a fourth member of their family, to be considered, managed and placated at all times.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“politeness and kindness were not the same thing.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“the waves of profound, overwhelming loss ever since. Moments of grieving for something that had never truly come into being.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“Sometimes it felt as though she were running to stand still; that however hard she worked, the goalposts were forever shifting, the expected levels of attainment ever increasing”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“Clio’s anger was now like a fourth member of their family, to be considered, managed and placated at all times.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“A parent’s love for their child is all-consuming; it goes beyond words, transgresses rational thought. Supersedes, sometimes, morality, conscience, the law.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“To grieve is an act of remembrance,”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“Remembering those we’ve lost is key to our ability to live without them. One cannot exist without the other. We cannot learn to bear their absence if we do not allow ourselves to remember the significance of their”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“parent’s love for their child is all-consuming; it goes beyond words, transgresses rational thought. Supersedes, sometimes, morality, conscience, the law.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers

“Remembering those we’ve lost is key to our ability to live without them. One cannot exist without the other. We cannot learn to bear their absence if we do not allow ourselves to remember the significance of their presence.”
― Hannah Beckerman, Three Mothers