More in this series
More Mother, Less Detective: Where I’ve Found Grace Without a Diagnosis for My Son
Not knowing happens to all mothers, and to all of us—if we are breathing, we are without escape from things we can’t know.
This is What Genes Can’t Tell Us, a monthly column by Taylor Harris on parenting, genetics, and the quest for answers to medical riddles.
What in the world? The Star
AnnieAnnie
The StarAnnieLove and Basketball
Are you looking for a train?
doknowing
sadbeing
doesn’t
what He has small hands. It’s no big deal. If he needs special scissors, what else will he need, and how will we know, and what if we don’t?
should
The Greatest Showman
Taylor Harris is a writer living in Virginia. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Longreads, The Cut, McSweeney’s, and other publications. Her memoir about mothering a son with an unexplainable medical condition is forthcoming from Catapult.
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More by this author
Whiteness Can’t Save Us
Whiteness cannot give us what we need, and this is not a disappointment. This is a testimony.
I Underwent Genetic Testing to Help My Son, and Discovered I Have an Increased Risk of Breast Cancer
What if my son, the boy who has puzzled everyone, has helped to save my life?
Two Black Parents Walk Into a Meeting: On Race, Education, and Our Son’s IEP
I’m not just advocating for a child whose challenges don’t follow a script. I’m also a black mother advocating for my black son in a room full of people who don’t look like us.
More in this series
Living in the “Yet”: When Genetic Tests Don’t Reveal the Answers You Seek
As a mother, I’ve had to ask myself: What would never getting an answer, or even no longer expecting an answer, look like?
What Keeps Me Up at Night: How Do I Meet My Son’s Needs If I Can’t See Them?
This is where, for me, motherhood divided into ‘Before’ and ‘After.’
Dear IU, Our Bodies Are Fine
I knew my body wasn’t ‘right’; it didn’t look like the bodies of the K-pop idols and Korean actresses I grew up admiring.