Hey folks, this is Max Young Rice from the StoryCorps podcast, and as always, I want to remind you that you can tell us your stories by calling our voicemail at 702-706 Talk.

This week, tell us about the biggest disagreement you had with your parents. That's 702-706, T-A-L-K.

And one more thing. We want a Webby. Our episode on Hurricane Katrina, won for Best History Podcast in the People's Choice and the judged category, which would not have been possible without your support. So, from everyone on the team that makes this podcast, thank you. The Webby's asked us to come up with a five-word acceptance speech, and here's ours.

There's poetry in everyday lives. Now, on with the show.

The hardest part of motherhood is having to let go again and again and again. Something Nancy Wright's

mom struggled with. We had an interesting time, especially in adolescence.

We were pretty compatible up to that point, and then I think we graded on each other's nerves quite a bit.

Nancy realized as she became an adult that her mother didn't see her as one.

She was critical of me and very judgment-laden.

And finally, when I was about 30, I told her, it wasn't helping me, and she said, that's what mothers do.

And I said, I didn't need a mother anymore. I needed a friend.

I think about two weeks, though, after that conversation, I picked up the phone one day and a small voice said on the other side,

um, hi, this is your friend. As a mother, I hate saying this, but it is my job to prepare my kid to leave me one day. And the idea of my

child going into the world by themselves is terrifying. But I know it'll mean I've done my job.

So because it's the time of the year when we recognize mothers for all they do, we went through

our archive, the largest collection of recorded voices in history,

to find stories about moms having kids and stories about letting them go.

I'm Jasmine Morris. It's the Story two stories about how hard it can be to become a mom in the first

place. In 1993, Marla Wendell had a stroke that

permanently impaired her motor skills in memory. She was three months pregnant at the time.

Decades later, her son Daniel asked her about the circumstances of his birth.

A lot of time went by between when you had your stroke and when I was born, what were you thinking during that time?

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