Saturday, March 14, 2015

struck by The Theory of Everything


Been hoping to find someone who has seen this movie
and now reading Jane Hawkings' memoir: Travelling to Infinity.
I knew it would be well written. She was a literature major
and finishes her PHD during the early years of marriage.
Stephen and Jane Hawkings' marriage was strong. 
Their community was  strong.
 There was always a neighbor in Cambridge who came to the rescue,
mostly without being called. Cell phones would have been wonderful!

Their active 2 year old son, Robert, climbed up to read the medicine
and  drank it! He was  energetic and " the living personification of all that was 
good and positive in our world and our relationship." As he 
lay in the hospital, Jane wrote that he looked " as beatific
as a Bellini cherub." 



She prayed this  mantra : "Please God, don't let him die"

She writes: 
"That day Robert survived , but a little bit of me died. Some, 
though not all, of that extravagant youthful optimism which had 
fired me with so much enthusiasm now lay buried beneath a 
heavy burden of anxiety, that dull care in its ravelled sleave,
which once it infects the mind is never banished." 

" I became neurotically protective."



I think I still can be " neurotically protective" of my grown children
and when  anxiety weighs heavy so I have a similar " mantra prayer":
Please Lord help him/ her. Don't let them ....

1 comment:

melissa said...

I remember reading a book one time where the mom said that after the birth of her children she'd never be completely happy again. I understand that. More now than even when they were small.