Jackie Van Dyke

The Girl

My mother grew up on the water. As a little girl, she played at its banks, watched the water change with the seasons and celebrated spring’s return. As she grew, she recognized the animals that depended on the river for food, those that flew overhead, hopped about and that swam in it. She grew stronger swimming in the river’s current like the very fish that she caught and fed her. She was the girl that became the woman who taught her girl Who became the woman who taught her girl to love the wa