Day 7: Lowcountry where Other Mothers thrive

Ann-Marie:

We live in very special places. I in Port Royal, you in Beaufort. A world away from so much else and yet close enough to know the universe.

The port of Port Royal, SC

Writing about the area in context of the story naturally translates into that much of the book is about living here. How could one NOT ~ finding oneself surrounded by the simpleness of time bathed in sunlight and coated in the salt tears of a clock standing still. It is the Slowcountry. One I relish for its lack of routine other than the tide, fishing, boating, cocktail hours and natural escapes.

Teresa:

We are jackpot-lucky to live in this place, and I think Bryne felt the same way. She and Duncan were expats in their own country and I think it's important that they chose this place to live and work.  I so connect with that that I wanted to do that justice.   So the Lowcountry, in "The Other Mother" is more than just a location, it's a central character.

Duncan, in particular, so needed to be near water that he was willing to return to the same stretch of coastline where his childhood had been ruined (he was born in Charleston). Byrne probably would have been just as happy to live out her life in Santa Fe, where she actually founded the Byrne Miller Dance Theatre. She found the desert mountains freeling and limitless. It was her daughter Jane that we have to thank for the Bryne Miller Dance Theatre moved to Beaufort.  This daughter of rebellious, Vietnam War protesting bohemian parents joined the Marine Corps! When Jane and her husband at the time were stationed at MCAS Beaufort, Ducan and Byrne followed her here and made it her home.

For me, the water in particular is what makes this place so special.  I first started writing about it in the "Transfer of Grace: Images of the Lowcountry." The way the tides are so reliable, so undefeatable, gives me a sense of perspective. Nothing we stress about in any given moment will be the same six hours from now.
narrative essay that accompanies my husband's photographs in

"Twice a day the waters reverse course and flood the marshy inlets once again.  All that is lost returns."

I still feel the magic and the majesty of the Lowcountry every time I come back from a road trip and drive over the Whale Branch River.  Again from the book ~

"For a brief thrilling moment, the Whale Branch River Bridge releases all who travel over it from gravity.  You look down from an Osprey's eye view into a fish-full ribbon of life.  the water is a shimmering membrane, wide and porous.  Salt and sweet, past and present glid in opposite directions."


The Other Mother: a rememoir by Teresa Bruce

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