New York Day Women

As she follows her mom --- New York Day Woman, what her mother does reminds the narrator many memorable quotes that her mom once told her:

- "would you get up ... I bet you don't even give up your seat to a pregnant lady"
    Sometimes, the narrator would give her seat but it all depends.

- "in Haiti when you get hit by a car ... kicks you for getting blood on his bumper"
    The narrator sees her mom patiently waiting  for crossing the street.

- "you can take them out when they bother you .... "
   The narrator's mother feels okay to have dentures.

- "he doesn't kiss me that way ... "
   The narrator asks her mother if she will feel empty when Papa kisses her.

- "a third of that money is all I would need .... "
   The narrator sees her mother watching the lottery drawing every night.

- "if they want to eat with me, let them come to my house ... "
   As she follows her mother, she remembers that her mother doesn't go out to dinner with anyone.

- "fat, you know, and cholesterol ... killed your aunt Hermine"
   Her mother talks to herself when peels the skin off poultry.

- "why should we give to Goodwill ... we save our clothes for the relatives in Haiti"
   Her mother stops by a vendor selling sundresses, considering to buy the African print dress that she would just bury or give to Goodwill, which reminds her what her mother once told her.

- "I cannot just swallow salt .. heavier than a hundred bags of shame"
   Her mother stops at a hot-dog vendor, and buys a frankfurter which is the thing with sodium that she shouldn't eat with her blood pressure.

- "many graves to kiss ... "
   Her mother sits with a child in the park with waiting for the child's mother to finish working out, and gives the child the soda that he bought from the vendor. They watches the other children playing. When her mother reads the child's comic book, she remembers how her mother taught herself to read the books that her brothers brought home. Her mother has lost six of her seven sister in Ville Rose.

- "day woman comes out when nobody expects them"
   She hurries back to work. On the bus, she sees her mother chatting with a group of women like a Parent-Teacher Association meeting in the park.

- "I sill have all these little Suzettes in case you never have any babies ... "
   Her mother sews many Raggedy Ann doll that she names Suzette.

- "that's a blessing ... even if American doctors say ... you can make retarded babies"
   Her mother had her when she was at the age that Christ died on the cross.

- "why, you can't you look like a day playing football"
   Her mother sews lace collars on her company softball T-shirts.

- "you're so good anyway ... I don't want to make you ashamed of this day woman ... "
  Her mother never went to any of her Parent-Teacher Association meetings.