“I take pictures. The chosen ones chant and chant. Ma seems so small and fragile in her loose cotton nightshirt, and so humble and sincere that she catches me off-guard . . . all my years of loving Ma while she was driving me out of my mind, and all the times I’ve been unutterably furious at her, and the love she’s capable of, and I can barely keep the camera steady.”
Meet Mother Brigid. Mother, wife, artist, and nascent nun, Susan Morse’s mother has spent her life searching for The Answer to Everything. In the 1960s, it was Catholicism; in the 1970s, she sang the praises of macrobiotics; and at the ripe old age of eighty-five, Ma has fully embraced Orthodox Christianity.
In honor of Mother’s Day, we are featuring Morse’s hilarious and frank memoir, The Habit, which chronicles her relationship with her indomitable and eccentric mother. As Ma’s designated “special” child, Morse is tasked with being both her confidante and her surrogate therapist. After Ma is diagnosed with rectal cancer, Morse assumes an even more proactive role, shuttling Ma from doctors’ appointment to religious ceremonies, all while juggling the responsibilities of mothering her own three children.
We see the ways Ma drives Morse to the brink of insanity with her seemingly arbitrary rules (in one instance, she admonishes her daughter for using the “vulgar” term trash can instead of the more acceptable scrap basket), but we also see Morse’s unalterable love for her mother.
For anyone who has experienced the role reversal of caring for aging parents, The Habit is an immensely relatable and comforting read. More universally, Morse’s deft exploration speaks to the particular dynamic of mother-daughter relationships, so complicated and frustrating, and yet ultimately underscored by abiding love.
Check out our Mother’s Day gift guide with ebooks for every kind of mom and follow our Mother’s Day blog series.