A Mother’s Wild, Extravagant Love

Modern Love

The New York Times

Nytimes, Redemption, Society & Culture, New York Times, Love, Essay, Storytelling, Loss, Nyt

4.4 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2022

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Genevieve Kingston has carried a cardboard box with her throughout her life, filled with gifts for major milestones — childhood birthdays, her first period, graduation. The gifts are from her mother, who died of cancer just before Ms. Kingston’s 12th birthday. In her final days, she prepared postcards for the future and filled the box with her love. In today’s episode, we listen to Ms. Kingston’s essay about opening the packages in the box, and her reflections on what was lost — and what was found. Then, we speak to a mother and son from one of our Tiny Love Stories to hear about how they have connected during the pandemic through cooking.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I hope she picks up.
0:04.8	We just talked.
0:07.0	Hey, Emma.
0:11.3	Hi, Mom.
0:12.3	How are you?
0:13.8	I talk to my mom a lot.
0:15.8	She's the person I call when I'm facing a big decision or when a guy I'm seeing makes
0:20.9	me feel sort of bad or when I just ate some sushi that I've been sitting out in the counter
0:26.3	for a few hours and I'm terrified I have food poisoning.
0:31.3	I guess I'm old enough that I don't have to call her for any of these things.
0:37.5	It's more that I just really want to talk to her.
0:41.1	I need to hear her voice.
0:43.1	Okay, bye, Mom.
0:44.1	I love you.
0:45.1	I and I love you too.
0:50.2	From the New York Times, this is the Modern Love Podcast.
0:54.2	I'm Anna Martin.
0:56.1	In this week's essay is about how painful it is when a daughter can't call her mother.
1:02.2	In a lot of ways, it's a love letter from daughter to mother and from mother to daughter.
1:07.8	It's called, she put her unspent love in a cardboard box.
1:12.6	It's written by Genevieve Kingston and read by Julia Whalen.
1:20.4	In the back of my closet is a small cardboard chest with brass handles and latches.
	...

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