Posted by Alex on May 6, 2010, from San Francisco, California
Community Partners: Contemporary Jewish Museum
Remember that time when you were little and snuck out of the house to visit the corner store for a bag of cookies while your parents were asleep? Or the time you tried to run away because your mom wouldn’t let you eat SpagghetiOs for dinner, only to walk around the block and go straight back home?
Moments like these are the reason we have mothers; to steer us straight when we need guidance, and to act in our best interests in the moments we don’t know what they are. It is this wisdom our mothers possess that is the central theme of Dave Isay’s’ new book Mom: A Celebration of Mothers From StoryCorps.
On Sunday, April 24th Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps, came to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco to celebrate our moms. And what better way to do this than to have some of the mothers and their family talk more in depth about their personal stories featured in the book!
StoryCorps participant Johnella LaRose came to the presentation with her daughter Kasima. Faced with the difficulties of raising three young children on her own, Johnella started an apprenticeship and went on to become a union cabinet maker.
Rebecca Posamentier talked about her mother Carol Kirsch, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Rebecca remembers her mom being there for her through the good times and the hard ones, too, like the time Rebecca came down with mono in college and her mom got on a plane to be at her side.
Annette and Jenevieve Zumba came in to talk about their mother, who one day decided she was tired of being called ‘mom’ by 7 kids all day and decided that for mothers day she would be called ‘Mrs. Zumba’.
Gabrielle Hall had come in to the booth with her sister Danielle in late 2005 to remember their mother, Martha Hall, who died of cancer. Gabrielle explained how important Thanksgiving has become to her family because it was the last meal they shared with her before she passed away.
Bay Area StoryCorps participants featured in the book (from L to R): Johnella LaRose, Gabrielle Hall, Rebecca Posamentier, Anneta Zumba
These are only a few of the many stories that can be found throughout the pages of Mom. A big thanks goes out to the Contemporary Jewish Museum for hosting the book reading, and to Dave for his tireless efforts to make sure that moms all across the country are heard.
May 7th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Red shoes on Gabrielle Hall! Love it.
May 8th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Storycorp is a trailblazing example of meaningful sharing – and all kinds of sharing seem to be popping up these days. I wrote about some of these ways at the blog, Moving From Me to We.
As a longtime fan of storycorp I was reminded this time that it is another great example of sharing and that the shareable community might be an apt partner to generate more visibility for each community’s work.