A group of mothers are in a circular therapy session wherein the MODERATOR shares her own painful story of her son getting hit by a car.

(talking to Nora)

MODERATOR: When my son Ron was hit by a car because of riding his skateboard into the street, no one else was to blame but me. I still blame myself. That never goes away. I was the one that said yes when he asked me to get it for him. I was the one who helped him pick out which skateboard he wanted, I was the one who watched him ride down the block with it for the first time and I was the one who saw him get hit by a black Mazda.

Not a day goes by when I don’t ask myself, what if. What if I told him no? What if I chose a different skateboard? What if I told my son to stay out of the street? Something I didn’t have the decency to do because I thought he knew better and…

Seeing him laying there, with his head against the back wheel of the tire, staring up at me as I approached him. His first words were, “I’m sorry, Mommy”. Imagine? My son Ronald sorry for what I caused. My son apologising to his horrible mother.

Well, those images will never leave me alone. I wrestle with them, try to pin them down and black them out, try to erase them, try to paint a different story…but I can’t…burned. Those images are burned forever in my memory, for life.

It’s been ten years. Ten years going on yesterday. But I promise you something, Nora. I promise you with all my heart and soul that there will come a day when you wake up in the morning and the heaviness in your chest comes loose and you find yourself breathing. It’s like taking your first breathe of life all over again.

What you feel won’t ever go away. That’s a fact. A fact all of us cope with. But you will breathe again. I don’t know how and I don’t know when but you will. I guarantee it.

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In this one-act play, NORA is the newest member of a group of mothers who have experienced a tragic event with their child.

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