Home » Listen » Fanni Green and her daughter Danyealah

“Letting go, for my mother, was scary.”

Fanni Green (L) tells her daughter, Danyealah (R), about moving her mother, Pauline, into an assisted living facility after her health began to fail.

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Recorded in Tampa, FL

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Credits

Produced by Katie Simon.

Facilitated by Anna Walters.

Recorded in partnership with WMNF Community Radio.

Transcript

Click here to read the transcript for this story.

Interview transcript

Fanni Green: Letting go, for my mother, was scary. And she would say, yes, she would go, one day and no, she wouldn't go, the next. And so I called the mother of my best friend. And I said, "what do I do?"

And she said, "mothers can never resist their children when their children simply bare their hearts. So don't go in and try to be strong for your mom. Don't go in making her try to do anything. Just look your mom in the eye, and tell her you need her help in order for you to help her."

And I did. And she looked back at me, and she said, "I will go. Though I'm so scared, I will go."

And I put my head in her lap, and I cried. But she didn't. She put her hand under her chin like she does, and she just looked off to the side. And then when I got done crying she said, "well, we better go do this before I change my mind."