They gave us life... and never let us forget it.
A lot of you have heard us talking about our mothers. The short story is that Jackie's mom lost her three-year battle with cancer in August 2003 at the age of 79. Eight months later, Deidre's mom was 64 when she died of complications from a head injury. Neither one of us knew how their lives and deaths would alter the course of our own lives, ultimately giving us the courage and drive to take on this project.Both women were teachers and while they inspired and guided other kids they mostly drove us crazy. That's until we got old enough to realize how they somehow weaseled themselves into our value systems and dreams. At the risk of getting all mushy (they'd just LOVE to see us cry but we..... just.... won't....), they were a couple of modern women who gently pushed the boundaries of what women were supposed to be doing in the 1950s and 1960s.
When Deidre was in kindergarten and her brother was in 3rd grade, her mom went to grad school at American University. She spent the better part of her life helping underprivileged elementary school kids in the public schools outside of Washington D.C. Jackie's mom was the first one in her family to go to college, made Jackie dress up to go to MLB games and famously went on a date with The Singing Cowboy.
There is more to this, of course, and we're happy to talk about it and openly share our experience in losing our mothers, as it continues to amaze us how much we still miss them. We're thankful that we realized they were pretty cool before they died and wish only that we had more time to explore our mother-daughter relationships.
Sadly, they died before we ever had a chance to tell them about this book.
We dedicate our work to these Honorary Savvy Girls.