When my mom was born, her parents named her Darlene. Seymour and Anne Horton thought they had coined a new name for their daughter, whom they called “Darling” in a domestic language of love.
Once a strong voiced loquacious performer and confident matriarch of 10 children and a clan of about 100 –counting in-laws, grandchildren and great-grandchildren – my mom speaks mostly gibberish now in a weak, high, thin voice. Hers is a pigeon language of heartbreak and lucidity.