A Lasting Impression by Debra Anderton

The story of “A Lasting Impression” (2010)  is told through a woman named Debi and it is about her beloved mother, who is defined by the narrator on who she was, what she did for her family and what happened to her. 

Debi’s mother, we are told, was the eldest of ten children of a poor family on a farm in Trussville, Alabama.  She is described as a person with a strong positive attitude and great determination.  She also was a very loving and caring woman who did the best she could for her family; even if that meant quitting school to help raise her younger siblings.  Also, when she had children of her own, she had to work two jobs to support her four kids, whose father had passed when their mother was only twenty-seven. 

The narrator moves on to describe her mother as a very beautiful woman.  The mother features are very positively noted by the narrator, but the narrator begins to add that mother’s hard labor was starting to take a toll on the mother’s body.  The narrator felt broken-hearted to see that her mother was aging before her time and the narrator felt an obligation to help her mother with financial burden as soon as she turned fifteen, which was the legal age to work at the time.  This would be conflicted due to the mother’s sudden marriage to man named Jack, who is described as a hulking man with a deep voice and a short temper.   The narrator seems conflicted by the marriage because she wasn’t happy with it, but was glad her mother was happy.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse as the mother’s new husband turned to drinking and began abusing the narrator’s mother and the mother also turned to alcohol to help ease the pain.  The narrator seemed willing but helpless to aid her mother and she didn’t find the courage to talk with her mother about her drinking until twenty years later.  The mother is then described as combative and irritable during her drunken state but eventually quelled and begins to feel saddened and lonesome.  It took four more years for everyone to accept what was going on and that the narrator’s mother should get better.  However, the mother decided against one of her sons’ advice in seeking professional help and she figured she could get better on her own.  A decision would regret as she ends up dying two weeks later.  The narrator’s feels saddened but decides to use her mother’s experience and the impression she made on her to help aid her as she experiences motherhood herself.