Dear Mom...

Mother's Day is only a few months away, and I just received this submission request from a dear (and insanely talented) friend. The rules are simple. She wants letters written to your mother, telling her about your special bond with the woman who gave you life. Maxiumum word count is 350 words, so for us writers, that's nothing! Final entries will be read by an actor during the show, and perhaps later might be included in an anthology. You can see the link here.

I'm planning to send in an entry to my mom, and I hope it will tug on more than a few heartstrings because both of us barely survived my birth, and I was so premature I spent the next three months in an incubator. Neither of my parents could touch me for weeks afterward. The best they could do was to reach through the incubator with latex gloves on and stroke my fragile little limbs with their fingertips. Makes me tear up just to think of it. I can't imagine not being able to hold your baby.

My mom said people would stop and stare at me in the nursery and cover their mouths in horror, or say "Oh, that poor little thing...". Yeah, it was pretty bad. I looked like a skinned rat, and weighed just over three pounds. Nowadays some premies weigh just over a pound and turn out just fine, but 35 years ago being over two months premature was a very dicey situation. Until about two months after my birth my parents both still expected to lose me, but I'm a lot more stubborn than that! And here I am. Take that, world!

Even if you don't enter the contest, please tell your mom how much she means to you. You wouldn't be here without her.