What We Think About When We Think About Mama

But there are also many of us who never knew our mamas at all, or who lost them far too early, as I did. Flora Louise Smith Reece died two months after I celebrated my eleventh birthday. I do remember her as my best friend, confidant, and protector. But I also remember the gap, those years of my youth when her presence lived only in the memories of my father, my aunts, my uncles, and my cousins.

I’ve been thinking about my mama a lot lately. Yes, because Mother’s Day was coming, but also because of other reasons. A few weeks ago, I interviewed one of my favorite songwriters, Iris DeMent, who grew up singing church songs with her parents, just like I did. There is another parallel between my life and Iris’s. Her mother was named Flora, too. On Iris’s first album, which came out in 1992, the final song was an old hymn called “Higher Ground,” which she sang in a duet with her own mother Flora. Before my mother died, “Higher Ground” was one of the last songs I heard my own mother Flora sing in church. I kinda lost it when I first heard that duet — and usually do most every time I’ve played it since. (A story based on my interview with Iris is coming soon.)