"Amazing Grace"
16" x 20"
Acrylic on canvas
Catherine Mulligan – Daughter of Survivor
“How you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you climb down the mountain. And so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one big gigantic test followed by one big gigantic lesson. In the end it all comes down to one word. Grace. It’s how you accept winning and losing, the good luck and the bad luck, the darkness and the light.”
“I’m climbing up my mountain”, my mom whispered quietly. She was fresh off the surgery table after a double mastectomy and lying down in the post surgery room. We brushed this goofy comment off our shoulders, assuming that she was just too drugged up to make any sense. Truth is - my mom was making a ton of sense. She was referring to the quote above.
My mother’s mountain was steep. It happened fast. It consisted of a double mastectomy, and rigorous sixteen week chemotherapy treatment. She made the climb look like a cake walk though. She handled it with grace. She graced winning, losing, good luck, bad luck, darkness, and light. She did it all. Gracefully, she would never know that though. She doesn’t know how gorgeous her head was, bald and shiny. She doesn’t know how much I admired her strength when she was lying in bed sick. She’ll never know how unbelievably graceful she is, because it is impossible for her to realize this. She is so humble.
She has taught me to face every mountain with positivity, confidence, humor, and grace. I know that anything is possible. An obstacle is a chance to become stronger, and then to help others become stronger. You have to be proactive against this mountain, and when you’re on top to scream and shout and get your message out. This is my mother, the mountain climber, and she is my amazing grace.
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