Dre Carlan

A Mother's Tears Dre Carlan

A Romanian woman escapes communism while facing cancer, a husband's death, and a son's struggles with drugs and alcohol. A Mother's Tears is a memoir that explores the relationships between perseverance, disease, and never-ending determination. It is conveyed through the hardships of a woman brought up under communist rule who eventually escapes the confined conditions of her home country only to find out she now has a physical conflict to fight. It is a heart-wrenching journey down the corridors of cancer, drugs and alcohol, and loneliness as a mother tries anything she can to make sure that both she and her son live to fight their own personal battles another day. The memoir is unique in its ability to interweave the different storylines between mother and son as they both struggle against their individual troubles. The reader cheers for the mother when she escapes Romania's uncertain landscape and tears up when the doctors inform her of the spreading cancer in her body. They're put in the son's shoes as he aimlessly wanders different downtowns in search of fleeting solace from his problems and breathes a sigh of relief when he finally decides to sober up. Two intertwined fates that are uncertain in their resolution until the very last page keep the audience in a state of anticipation for healed wounds and happy endings.