We cannot know the most difficult moments in our lives until we are faced with them. This can be said for Haven, a mother in her 30s who is now faced with the most difficult time of her life, which makes her very angry and distraught because her life had already been a difficult road to travel. Being raised in a single-parent household because her father was in prison, Haven struggle with what love actually meant. She got used to spending time visiting her father in jail and only knowing his voice through the phone and in letters. As life moved forward, her brothers decided to follow in her father’s footsteps saying that this is the life they had to live because it is the only life that they knew. Haven felt differently, she wanted to give her children everything that she didn’t have and be everything that her parents were not. Unfortunately, life shows us that it is more probable that we will be just like our parents rather than being nothing like them. Now she finds herself a single mother with a husband who is spending the rest of his life in prison and her bundling up the children every weekend to go and visit him, as the cycle repeats. It is not until she receives a devastating diagnosis that she must reflect over her life, accept everything that it was, everything that it is, and question if she has the strength to push through. Even though she is going through a rough time, she still wants the best for her kids and will literally give her life to ensure that.
Tales of a Survivor
(Scene opens with Haven, a woman in her early thirties going through a box of memorabilia. She goes through pictures, letters in and out of envelopes, digging through the box, smiling, laughing, remembering all of these things that have brought her so much joy. (Beat) She picks up a picture, it means more to her than anything else she has picked up.)
I can’t believe I found this picture. Shit. (Laughing) I don’t even know where to start with my mom but this picture (showing the audience) this picture- okay so my mom was a great mom in the sense that she would lay down her life for her kids. Like I knew that she loved me because of the things that she did not from her telling me, ever. That wasn’t her style. But this (back to the picture) was taken on the day I was born. (Laughing) I know, I know she looks so pissed off. (Laughing) The look on her face says, “Nine months, all this pain and this is what I get in return?” (Smiling) That’s really something she would say. Not, “I love you Haven, you’re beautiful, your birth changed my life.” Nope none of that, she didn’t blow smoke, had no time for it. Just truth. (Beat) Truth. (To audience) Truth is hard for a kid to understand. Just something to think about if you have kids, it can be hard for a kid to understand your honesty at a young age, just give them a break.