“I am not turning into my mother’s apologist by writing those words; I would certainly trade in my childhood experiences with her in a heartbeat. But I – and you, for that matter – are more than the sum of the parts our mothers, loving or not, bequeathed us. The process of confrontation – of feeling the pain of not being loved or known – and of becoming conscious of how we were mothered offers an unloved daughter possibilities of growth another experience might not have yielded.”
