Please
enjoy this excerpt from Praise of Motherhood, a
touching memoir by Phil Jourdan. Then read on to learn how you can
win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $500 in Amazon
gift cards and 5 autographed copies of the book.
It was Veterans Day; the Pope spoke
into a microphone so the thousands around him could hear his weary
voice. And in the airport lounge my sister and I waited for our
flight to take off, trying not to listen to the televised broadcast
of the Pope’s solemn speech. I held my sister’s hand and heard
her say fuck for the first time.
“fuck, do you think she’s going to
be okay”
and I said “I don’t know”
and she said “but why aren’t they
telling us what’s going on”
“I don’t know”
“I don’t want mom to die”
“I know”
“I’m so scared”
“I know”
and the Pope went on, speaking of the
dead, the men whose lives had been lost in a terrible war, and he
praised them, their families, for the courage they’d shown. He
spoke of Christ, but not much. Sometimes he closed his eyes and
paused. From the airport lounge, sitting in front of the television
screens, I had to rely on the cameras for a sense of what being there
was like. Safe and comfortable and mourning out of patriotic or
humanistic duty, in a spirit of contemplation. The Pope did not know
that my mother was dying in a little hospital in Portugal. Neither
did the lady who announced, on the intercom at the airport, that out
of respect for the men who had lost their lives during the war
however many decades ago now, we were all invited to stand for two
minutes of silence. Everyone else in the lounge stood up, but my
sister and I remained in our seats and hugged each other.
As far as I knew, my mother was dying
or dead, a small, tanned Portuguese woman with curly dark hair and
two dogs, two kids, a lovely loving wonderful lady, all of that
sob-story stuff. It turned out that when we were waiting for our
flight, she was still alive. She would only die in the evening, after
the Pope was done speaking and everyone was having dinner and no
longer thinking about the veterans. But nobody had warned me. Nobody
had warned anyone. Everybody was on the way to Portugal, my uncle, my
grandfather, me and my sister, all of us trying to protect someone.
They didn’t tell me what had happened until I arrived in Portugal.
I didn’t tell my sister everything I knew, which was next to
nothing, because I wanted to think I could protect her. I spoke to my
father on the phone and he was in tears: “I will be there when you
land,” he said,
and I said:
“but why, what’s going on”
“I’m not sure, I’m not sure, but
if I were you… oh, Jesus, if I were you I would brace myself for
the worst”
And he broke into tears and hung up.
They had been separated fifteen years.
On the plane my sister and I spoke
little. I told her it’d be okay. I told her even if the worst
happened, I’d be around for her. You’re my little sister. Tell me
about Denver. How are classes going? She gave short, bored answers,
and she asked me about my life. I told her I’d been about to take
the train to Paris from London with a friend when I found out
something was wrong with our mom.
“but what’s wrong with her” my
sister said
“I don’t know”
“why don’t they just tell us”
“because they’re trying to keep us
sane”
“how can I be sane when my mom is
dying all of a sudden”
“I really don’t know”
When we arrived in Portugal, and I saw
my family standing together waiting for us — my grandparents, my
father, my aunt — I knew at once there was no hope.
As
part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel
Publicity, the price of the Praise of Motherhood eBook
edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this
fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many
awesome prizes. The prizes include $500 in
Amazon gift cards and 5 autographed copies of the book.
All the info you need to win one of
these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning
is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to
enter; easy to win!
To win the
prizes:
About the book:
Praise of Motherhood is a son's
tribute to the woman who not only gave him life, but helped him live:
through various psychotic breakdowns, tumultuous teenage years, and
years of feeling out of place in the world. Get
it on Amazon or Barnes &
Noble.
About the author:
Phil Jourdan fronts the lit-rock
band Paris and the Hiltons, runs the fiction press Perfect Edge
Books, and occasionally works on a PhD.
Visit
Phil on his blog, music site, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.
No comments:
Post a Comment