Mommys Shoes

The following poem was borrowed from Kathleen Brown-Blake, a histiocytosis mom. This poem is a very sweet way of expressing being a parent of a child with any life altering medical diagnosis. More importantly, it is a gentle reminder that we all have our hardships.

Mommys Shoes.

My mommy is wearing a pair of shoes.
They are ugly shoes.
She says they are uncomfortable shoes.
My Mommy hates her shoes.

Each day she wears them, and each day she wishes she had another pair.
Some days her shoes hurt so bad that she does not think she can take another step.

Yet, she continues to wear them.

She gets funny looks wearing these shoes. I can tell in others eyes that they are glad they are my mommy’s shoes and not theirs. They never talk about my mommy’s shoes.
To learn how awful her shoes are might make them uncomfortable.

To truly understand these shoes you must walk in them. But, once you put them on, you can never take them off.

I now realize that my mommy is not the only one who wears these kinds of shoes. There are many pairs in this world.

Some mommies ache daily as they try and walk in them. Some have learned how to walk in them so they don’t hurt quite as much. Some have worn the shoes so long that days will go by before they think about how much they hurt.

No mommy deserves to wear these shoes.
Yet, because of these shoes they are stronger women.
These shoes have given my mommy the strength to face anything.
They have made her who she is today.
She will forever walk in the shoes of a woman who has a child with histiocytosis.

Thank you mommy for wearing those shoes for me!