Free Mom by Dave Isay

homemade cakes, and I still do that today. So we just had a nice Christmas, because that’s what I’d worked for. I’d say, “Jerry, write three things down that you want.” I would pick one so you’d have one new toy. I never did tell you it was Santa Claus, though, ’cause I said, I cannot give no man credit for this.
    Jerry: I told that to some of the kids at school once. We were talking about Santa Claus, and I said, “Man, hard as my mother works, we weren’t gonna give no white man the credit!” [ laughs ]
    You’ve been through a lot. What would you say, thinking down through the years, would be some of the things that you were the most proud of?
    Carrie: You know the thing that I’m most proud of? That I was able to raise my six children and you all turned out as well as you did. Because that was really a load on my shoulders. And you know, the Lord blessed all of them. Just like when you were a boy: I asked you what you wanted to be, and you said you wanted to be a doctor. So when you graduated out of medical school, Washington University, that was the happiest day of my life—when you walked across that stage and you became a doctor.
    I took you to church, and I took you to Sunday school. I took you when you wanted to go, and I took you when you didn’t. But son, it paid off—you have to agree.
    Jerry: Oh, I agree, I agree.
    Carrie: I’m so grateful how the Lord blessed me, and how my children turned out. Whatever you attempt to do, don’t give up; you just got to press on, and God’ll make a way.
    Recorded in Detroit, Michigan, on May 26, 2007.

DENNIS MCLAUGHLIN, 58 interviews his mother, THERESA MCLAUGHLIN, 82
    Dennis McLaughlin: When I was born, what did the doctors say to you?
    Theresa McLaughlin : They said that you had a long road ahead of you. At six or eight months, you had surgery on your spine to see what was causing the paralysis in the lower part of your body. They discovered that you had a vertebra and a half missing in your spine, and it had gnawed away the nerves that controlled the lower half of your body. They said that you would need a lot of surgery and a lot of time in the hospital, but they said, “From the neck up he’s just fine; if he wants to do something, at least give him the chance to try to do it.” And that’s always the way that I’ve felt. You’ve tried a lot of things, and you’ve always been successful at everything that you’ve tried.
    Your grandfather McLaughlin was quite handy with building things, and he built you a little wheelchair when you were very small. He built it out of wood that he had, and the wheels are from—I’m not sure if it was a bicycle or a tricycle—but it was all stuff that he had around. I think you were one year old, and you got around in that very, very well.
    Dennis: I spent a lot of time in the Shriners Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts. A few years ago, we drove through Springfield. It suddenly dawned on me what an incredibly long trip that was—and we were on interstate highways. I thought, Well, in 1948 most of these roads didn’t exist. So what did you have to do to come and see me?
    Theresa: We could only visit on Saturday. The hours were from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon—no exceptions. For quite a while, your dad and I used to go by car. Then your dad and I separated, and I didn’t have a car. So I had to take the bus to Springfield. I had to work at the time, and we were living with my parents. So I would get out of work at midnight and take a bus to Portland, and then from Portland to Boston. Then when I got to Boston I had a two-hour wait for the bus to Springfield, and I was afraid to go even out of the station, so I’d wait right in the station for two hours until the bus came.
    The hospital was on the outskirts, so when I got to Springfield I had to take another bus from the city to the hospital. But I couldn’t go and see you until eight o’clock in the morning, and so I’d wait