Thank You.

(Photos courtesy of Associated Press, Arlington National Cemetary, Comstock Photos, Getty Images.)

Hey, hey… lookit me!
I’m the latest Pixelview interview.

Hi jz, Miz Kitty & Derek… Web Celeb status here I come!

When I got home, I gathered what few kids were awake to the dinner table.
I slapped the N.Y. Post down on the table in front of them.
They read the front page, looked up at me…

All I said was “Think about it”, as I walked away and they read the story.

Yes. Think about it.

I’m not gonna lie to you. I cried like a baby at my desk.

My boss gave me a little time to go outside, have a cigarette, compose myself.

I’m actually remembering this as I just saw Miz Kitty’s Post, and Dan’s thoughts on the matter.

I never understood the anger afterward though. People, no one ever heard of before in KayCee’s circle of friends, showed up all over MetaFilter like rabid pitbulls, forming a mob. I have to question how much were they emotionally invested in this privately that they were suddenly so bitter and vicious (I mean to the point of obsession!) over it all.

Yes, the people closest to “KayCee” were shocked, hurt… and basically knocked for a loop as they just realized that they were living a lie.

But they didn’t stop caring after that.

A lot of you were there, so I won’t even attempt to re-write history. I defended her at MetaFilter, when I should have shut up and waited for the facts to come in. Ran my own private investigation, got called a “sicko”, watched my words get twisted by the same idiots that told you to “trust no one”, yet you questioned them… and they got loud and defensive.

*deep cleansing breath* Let’s not go there… that was then, this is now.

KayCee may not have been real, but what we all felt was. The turmoil we felt was “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”. Kind of screwed people up to think that they had such emotions invested in someone that never existed.

Was that really such a bad thing? To reach out and care for a total stranger??? Even if it means the risk of getting burnt?

Dan quotes a song based loosely on 1 Corinthians 13:1, which basically means that without love… it all means nothing..

On the web, it’s all pretty one sided. This weblog is no exception. You only can know what the author *wants* you to know. There may be another side to the story… it may be exaggerrated… it may be pure unadulterated bullshit.

If it’s too great of a risk, then there are “Kaycee Nicoles” all around you in real life. It may not be leukemia…. they may be hungry, they may be homeless, they just may need someone to listen.

Are you gonna stop caring? Are you going to close your heart for good?
I can’t. It’s just not in my nature.

“I’d like to think if one of us needed something, we’d react the same way again.”

Awwww… you bet your bippy, Dan!
(Except maybe next time I’ll shut the fuck up on MetaFilter…) ;0)

Thanks guys. I really needed to see this.

Her name was Dorrienne (pronounced “Doreen”). In 1965, she gave birth to a little boy out of wedlock. It was eight years before Roe -vs- Wade, but I doubt that would have made much of a difference… she wanted a baby.

She literally re-wrote history in an attempt to spare this little boy the repercussions of being an illegitimate child. On his birth certificate, the spot about his father’s last name, she put down *her* last name, as she used her mother’s maiden name for herself. She spent her whole life compensating for him only having one parent.

Being a mother is hard work as it is… being a single mother is even harder. Yet she made it look so easy.

Every Christmas there were gifts under the tree. Every night, there was dinner on the table. All she ever asked of that little boy was to become the best person he could be. Stay in school, stay out of trouble, and make his life count.

At a petite five feet tall, she could make him freeze in his tracks with a stare. She never had to beat him, save for an occasional smack in the back of his head to knock some sense in him. Sure, they had their moments, their fights, their resentments… but it wasn’t until that little boy grew up, and became a parent, that he realized how many sacrifices and painful choices she had to make for that spoiled rotten little boy that got just about every thing he ever wanted or needed.She worked nights, so she could be there for him during the day. She worked the same job in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, from when he was a year old, till the day she was struck down by a car on a rainy night in April, 1985.

Dorrienne Brooks lingered for another four years, trying to overcome stroke-related paralysis & dementia (being struck by the car caused a blood vessel in her brain to burst), and then eventually skin cancer. She passed away on April 28th 1989 of post-op pneumonia. Her final moments were spent making her remaining family members promise to look after her little boy. Even in the end, she was more concerned for his well-being than her own…

I miss you mom.

I look for you in the stars, the cool summer breeze, even in the glimmer in my children’s eyes, and wonder if I’ve told you “I Love You” enough.

I wonder if I ever remembered to say “thank you” for everything you’ve had to do for me.

To all the hard working, under-appreciated mothers of the world (especially the single moms), HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY.

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