When you’re a mother, fear is the job description.
As a mother you learn about fear in ways like never before. You’re always afraid–always. About everything from the kids falling out of bed, getting hit by a car, kidnappers, to the weather. There is nothing that can’t hurt our kids. But the last thing that would cross your mind is the fear of you hurting your children. Never in a million years did I think that I’d be the one to break their hearts. The same hearts that I worked so hard to protect. To make a mistake, one bad decision, that landed me in prison for 17 years. Those 17 years take me away from the most critical times in their lives, when they will and have needed me the most.
I have a friend who is serving a life sentence in the state of Michigan. Her case is one of tragedy, and her punishment is severe, but she doesn’t spend her time in self-defeating thoughts or thinking of what might have been. Instead, she focuses on her future. She spends her days going to college since at her prison there’s two local community colleges offering bachelor degrees in various disciplines. In her case it’s business management. This is what she has been studying and working toward for several years.
