Meet mom
How do you keep your Mom with you even after she is gone from this earth?
You share her.
No one feels more alive in this life as to when someone is loving them through it. Thank God that someone was my Mom. Her love, her tenderness, her letters, her unconditional cuddles were exactly what I needed growing up.
Mom was my biggest cheerleader and yet, didn’t know how to cheer for herself. She passed away from suicide in 2013 at the age of 66. I was 33. Never diagnosed with anything, never wanted any help.
Growing up, I used to ask her…
“What’s the point of life?”
“To give back, my darling, to give back.”
Through pain, trauma and constantly learning, this is my give back show in honor of her life who gave me mine.
We were Momma & Baby Duck.
We were Ma & Ba.
We were Mrs. Sam and Christmas.
Mom instilled in me the utmost importance of writing hand written cards to loved ones. I wrote this to her for Mother’s day in 2003 while living in LA. I was 23. She died less than 10 years later in 2013. I had no idea what would be in store…
The card below was from mom to me in 2007. I moved very far away from Mom at 18 to be a Rockette in Los Angeles. She came with me those first two months, but that would be the most time we would spend with each other ever again. She was in South Carolina. This was referring to my first choreography job on a big television show at the time..
Opening Night of the Broadway Revival of A CHORUS LINE
October 5, 2006.
*Below is a drawing and note left for me during A CHORUS LINE on her visit in NYC, 2006.
How can I tell you how much I love you?!
How can I tell you how much I hate for you to see me dirty and sick?
How can I tell you that I now have a home that I love and when you walked inside you brought the laughter and love and joy that has now made it complete?!
Thank you for loving me and being so strong during this poopy time!
Thank you for your loving eyes, your sweet head on my shoulder, your strength and determination to get me well and your sweet sweet hugs…
Moma
(2.23.46 - 1.8.13)
Cheryl-Sam Whitehead-Berry