I'll Do It for My Mom

Raphaela Damm Stoneman

Description

An Inside hopeful journey into the eyes and mind of a little girl born into trauma.
A hopeful journey through the eyes and mind of a little girl born into trauma.
A family tragedy sends Levi, a beautiful, shy, nine-year-old girl, into a welcoming fantasy world she can lean on.
A story for young adults, I’ll Do It for My Mom tells the emotional story of a daughter’s love and heartache for her mother’s life and her unbreakable strength to survive both her heavy, traumatic reality and the fantasy world she discovered.
Author Raphaela Damm Stoneman brings to life an important topic many shy away from. A compelling ending raises the question: Was her home life that uncommon? If not, how many more are out there?

Sujets

• Young Adult Fiction
• Help! (película)
• Resilience
• Illness
• Résilience (physique)
• Children
• Help
• Family
• Hope
• Trauma

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 24 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665734257
• Langue: English

Extrait

I’LL DO IT FOR MY MOM
RAPHAELA DAMM STONEMAN


Copyright © 2023 Raphaela Damm Stoneman.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination and present recollections of experiences over time or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events are shared with the intention of shedding love light and understanding to all readers.
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Cover & Interior illustrations Credit:
Leeram Stoneman
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3426-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3425-7 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022922471
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 3/24/2023
CONTENTS
Preface
 
Chapter 1 I’m Going to Remember This Happy Day
Chapter 2 What Happened To my Mom?
Chapter 3 Look What I Found!
Chapter 4 I Visited Mommy at The Hospital Today
Chapter 5 My Place Where I Go and Be Happy
Chapter 6 My Friends Have a Past I Didn’t Know About
Chapter 7 Today Is a Hard Day for Me
Chapter 8 I Burst Out a Piece of My Feelings, and It Didn’t Scare Them Away
Chapter 9 My Friends Told Me They Like My Outsides and My Insides Too
Chapter 10 I’m On the Silent Rollercoaster of Emotions, but I’m OK
 
Acknowledgments
A Personal Note
A Thank-You Note To Ema (Mom)

To my sons: Sage, Sivan, and Leeram. You are my everything, and I love you.
PREFACE
I want to tell you something. It’s a little difficult to explain, but guess what? I didn’t write this story. The story won’t leave me alone. First it showed up in my head when I wasn’t thinking about it. Oh, what’s this ? I thought. It kept nudging at me. I tried to move on with my days, but the more I didn’t give it attention, the deeper it soaked into every bit of me. Then it woke me up in the middle of the night. I opened my eyes and saw one of the characters smiling at me. At first, I thought, great. Now the story is in my dreams too? But then I saw my bedroom window and the wall right next to it. No, I’m not dreaming. My eyes are open, so I am awake . I could still see the character from the story too. He was in front of me, smiling. I wasn’t scared, because he was smiling at me. I guess I’m sleeping and dreaming with my eyes open ?
A few days later, it was clear to me that the only way the story would leave me alone was if I wrote it down on paper. I also had to write a summary of a story that I didn’t ask for. I was trying to understand what this story was really about and who it belonged to. I pondered for a moment, and then something very special happened to me. Permission to share the story with you blessed me in a way that was beyond me and always would be. I didn’t feel like I sat down to write a story. It felt more like the story sat me down to write it for you.
CHAPTER 1
I’m Going to Remember This Happy Day
I t was a gorgeous weekend morning. Levi (LEH-vee), a beautiful, shy nine-year-old girl, and her mom were riding their bicycles under the clear blue sky, in hopes of finding the sweetest treat to enjoy. Levi carefully followed behind her mom, keeping her distance from the loud cars that passed them by.
“This is so much fun! I am so happy! Where are we going, Mommy?”
“We are going to find the rainbow!” declared her mom with a smile.
After a joyful forty-minute bicycle ride, Levi and her mom finally made it to a small run-down family-owned convenience store.
“Good morning. Can we have a small piece of the marmalade, please?” Mom asked the store owner.
The store owner carefully cut out a small piece of marmalade and handed it to Mom. “You must be a very special little girl for your mom to buy you my marmalade,” the store owner said to Levi. “Only good little girls get to taste my beautiful marmalade.”
“She’s my beautiful little girl, and yes, she is a very good girl. The most special gift in my life.”
Levi looked at the marmalade with her big green eyes and shouted with excitement. “It looks like the rainbow, Mommy. Look at all the striped colors: red and blue and yellow and white and green and pink. Wow, so many colors. And sugar on top! I love it, and I love you, Mommy! This is the happiest day of my life.”
“You love sweets, don’t you, Levi?” asked Mom. “Sugar makes you happy.”
Levi looked into Mom’s eyes and replied in a deep, mature tone that was well beyond her years, “You make me happy, Mommy. You’re with me. Together.” Bowing her head down in prayer, she whispered to herself, “I hope and wish that this will last forever. Please keep my mommy safe. I will be the best girl all the time. Yes, I promise. Just keep her safe and healthy, please and thank you.”

“What’s wrong, Levi?” asked Mom, smiling lovingly.
“Nothing is wrong, silly. It’s perfect,” answered Levi as her young nine-year-old self again. “Everything is just perfect.” Closing her eyes, she carefully took a tiny bite of the marmalade. With each tiny bite, she made sure to taste all the colors, as if each bite had to be a rainbow bite. Gently laying her mom’s hand in hers, she wondered, Why are some moments so sweet and peaceful and others so unbearable? And there’s nothing I can do about it. Why does that happen?
“I love you,” said Mom. “I love you so much.”
CHAPTER 2
What Happened To my Mom?
“T hese puppies are so cute. They’re so soft and cuddly. Oh, I wish they could just stay small like this forever,” said Levi to her neighbor friend. “Thank you for inviting me to play with them. This is so special. Look, they are nursing from their mom. They must be really hungry.”
Levi sat beside her neighbor’s dog, admiring the fragile puppies nurse peacefully, when she suddenly heard a loud noise down the street. The noise sounded like ambulance sirens.
“I want to take one of your puppies home with me, but I know I can’t. It will already be too much. I’ll just come over every day to see you, play with your puppies, hold them, kiss them, and love them.” Levi seemed to be stalling, like she was frozen in place. Something didn’t feel right. “I need to leave now. I’ll come back tomorrow.”
Levi quickly ran out of the backyard and down the street, heading home. Anxiously climbing the stairs to the second floor of her apartment building, she opened her front door and found the neighbor from the apartment below sitting in her living room.

“Mom fell, Levi,” said the neighbor dreadfully.
“I fall all the time,” replied Levi.
“I know. You have a lot of courage. Did you know that, Levi?