Brittney Griner's Mom

      I don't know Brittney Griner's mom. I don't know anything about her. With all the coverage of the the American basketball star since she was arrested, imprisoned and finally set free in Russia, I've read nothing about her mom. The anguish and worry of Brittney's wife and teammates has been shared publicly. But not her mother's.
      And yet upon seeing that photograph last August of Brittney Griner during her Russian trial, the first thought I was hit with was of her mom. 

     What must Brittney's mother be feeling, I wondered, seeing that picture of her child, caged, frightened, and alone?  
      And I wondered what she felt when she saw this picture of her bewildered daughter being led from the courtroom after being sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony?

      How much pain pierced Brittney's mother's heart every day, I wondered, how many tears did she cry over her daughter who, according to the news reports, was  suffering physically and mentally but whom her mother could not rescue or talk to or comfort?
​       Somehow I couldn't help assimilating everything that I read about Brittney Griner through a mother's eyes and with a mother's heart; because somehow, for some reason I can't explain, in Brittney's sad face I kept seeing the face of one of my own children.  ​

         Likewise, when the news broke the other day that Brittney Griner had been released, that she was safe and on her way home, that she was feeling happy, that she was smiling, 

...my first thought was again of her mom, the tears of relief and happiness she must be crying, how her heart must be bursting for joy.
       And my heart rejoices, too, for her and for the child who's been returned.​