Your stories of courage continue.

Here’s the second of your submissions from last month’s request for essays on courage from readers. To examine courage from more perspectives, I asked for short essays on readers’ most courageous moments, and am offering two iPod nanos as prizes—the first to the winner of the essay contest and the second to a random commenter.

The first entry was from Michael Shepherd. Here’s the second.

Tina Hillson

My most courageous moment has to have been bringing myself to tell my mother that it was ok to die.

It was June 2007, and I was pregnant at the time. I had gone back to my hometown with my sister when our brother had told us that our mother had become critically ill and was not expected to live. Despite being in the end stage of ovarian cancer, the first thing that my mother did when I entered her hospital room was to look at my swelling belly and declare “I’m going to be around to see that little thing”. Within hours she could no longer speak; but for the next couple of days she hung on, still trying to fight.

Finally, my sister and I each told her in English and in German (her native tongue) that it was ok to die. I told her that I would keep her memory alive, so that her granddaughter would know her, and that we would all be ok. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Within two hours, with all of her children and their spouses at her bedside, my precious mother died. …And for the first time, I felt my baby move. I knew then that I would also have the courage to go on. My mother’s memory remains very much alive. My daughter was born five months later to the day, a beautiful little chip of my sunny mother, and every day I see my mother in her smile.

Can you relate to Tina’s story? Comment below to enter your name in the contest, and, if her words move you, send your own essay on courage to me at lauradisilverio AT yahoo.com.

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